Our friend Jessica contacted us over Skype while we were writing this book. She lives in London, where Skype is wildly popular, and she joined in on the fun. When we asked her how she used Skype, she replied the same way virtually everyone responds: " I use it to talk to my mom."
The number one reason Mom would love Skype is that it is free. A free call through Skype means that you can stay on longer. It also means that Mom can leave the conversation to answer the door, baste the roast, or answer a business colleague's call without worrying about cost. With phones, time is money; words have a price on their head. Skype makes having long-distance conversations more like chatting in the same room.
One of the authors of this book has a mom who is 84 years old. She hardly ever touches the computer except to look over her husband's shoulder (he's 92). But when Skype was installed and the startup was automated by having Remember My Password selected, Mom didn't hesitate to grab the mouse by its tail and click. The blue desktop icon with the big S in the middle is all Mom has to know to connect.
Do special occasions always make you hungry for some mouth-watering childhood dish? (Perhaps you can still taste that strawberry shortcake your mom baked for your birthdays.) Sadly, you may have totally forgotten, mistakenly trashed, or never recorded Mom's recipes. You'd have to call Mom, crush the phone to your shoulder, and have her dictate the recipe (while spending as much money on the call as you would on the ingredients). Now, with Skype, Mom can tell you exactly how to make her Lemon Chicken, mix up her low-cholesterol Cocoa Cake, and much more while you're cooking. You can leave Skype on and ask questions (or get spontaneous tips). In the process, Mom can send you the recipe for good measure at the same time. Having a personal cooking coach makes life in the kitchen that much easier. Besides, Mom may use the "on air" practice to start a cooking show franchise on cable TV!
Organizing a family gathering can be a logistical nightmare, even if all the participants are local. Coordinating pickups, arrivals, and who is bringing the dessert can be handled by a conference call or conference chat. Even if Mom is not initiating the conference call, which requires more than one click (but not much more), she can still use this feature to connect with Paul in Newburgh, Leah in Flemington, and Susan in Brooklyn. If the plans are made with the message board, they persist, meaning that even after you quit the program, when you start up again the transcript of the last chat remains. You can even save all your planning chats with bookmarks (see Chapter 6). This is a very handy feature to help keep the planning straight if your pen runs out of ink or your calendar page runs out of writing room.
Mom may or may not have been born to compute, but she's sure to want to take advantage of all its perks. A common family scenario is sharing travel plans. This used to be simple ("Mom, I'm coming in on Flight 123 on Blue Sky Airlines flying into YourCity terminal"). Now, parents, grandparents, and other interested parties want to know where you are every moment you're in the air. Doing so might require that you read a complicated URL or Web address over the phone so that family members can connect to a flight-tracking Web site. Dictating a URL with endless letters, numbers, underscores, slashes, and so on might require more time and patience than is at hand. The alternative, copying and pasting a URL into an email, may be equally frustrating because some email programs don't automatically translate Web addresses into live links. Using Skype messaging enables you to send Mom your itinerary with a live link to the airline to track your flight. If there is some confusion, you can simply talk about it and explain what to do on the spot. If Mom can hear it, and Mom can see it, Mom can do it (and that goes for the rest of us).
Most of us lead busy lives, and moms are among the busiest. In Skype, messages are more than a passing thought. They can be kept indefinitely. Skypers can even go back in time. By choosing the History Tab in your main Skype window, you can see a long list of Skype activities, including past text chats. Click a chat item in your History list and you can reread the entire text conversation (see Chapter 6). In fact, you can even use the cute pushpin icon to bookmark a specific conversation. It's a great way for Mom to refresh her memory, refresh your memory, and keep track of details.
The History view looks like a script for a play, and you don't have subheadings and attachment files to wade through to get a snapshot of a conversation.
Calling Mom or other family members at their jobs is a bit of a nail-biter for many people. Using a landline or cell phone, you never really know whether you are calling at a bad time. On Skype, the status icons that announce your availability alleviate the worry.
Chapter 3 tells you all about setting your online status icons.
Using the chat window as a just-in-time memory jogger in the background is a great way for Mom to be in contact when she needs to let you in on some news. The neat thing about Skype is that even though you or your mom may have posted the Offline status icon, you can still send each other a message. On the Mac platform, Skype will even let each of you know, ever so politely, that you "may not respond."
Doing so doesn't stop the message from getting through. This method sure beats writing down that fleeting thought on a scrap of paper that disappears among all the other scraps of paper and leads to the "There was something I wanted to tell you" conversation. Mom can simply send a message before it slips her mind (and vice versa), even while she's waiting to board a plane for a business trip. Juggling families and careers can be made just that much easier with Skype.
Although receiving an invitation in the mail is lovely, there are just some events that most of us can't wait to tell the world. Besides, not all announcements are "stamp worthy"; you're not likely to send an "I bowled 300!" card. Using "Mood Messages" (see Chapter 3), you can add a comment that appears next to your Skype Name and is visible to all your contacts. It's like having a virtual public address system. Although Skype calls this a Mood Message, meant to announce your state of mind to the world, there's nothing to stop you or Mom from using it for more practical things. She can post a "hold the date" message for upcoming celebrations, let everyone know her travel schedule, or even announce, '"I'm running the Boston Marathon on Sunday." The possibilities are endless!
With Skype, busy moms can see as well as hear their children, which is especially nice if their work takes them out of town. It is probably one of the best reasons for parents, who often live far away from grown children, to use Skype. Setup is easy and the payoff is huge. Moms can see how their children are doing. Older moms can visit with grown children and see their grandchildren. Younger moms may have school-age children at home with a nanny while they're at work. The video camera lets a mom traveling on business see whether homework is done and school forms are filled out. Video contact gives mom a feeling of well-being because she can check in — and see for herself — that everything is okay.
Families need a common arena. They may be scattered many miles or countries apart. Discovering a free forum that enables a very flexible method of communicating (voice, written messages, video, announcements) can make it easier for families to get closer. Phone calls lead to phone tag. Emails are handy, but they are limited and out of sync with a casual conversation. Skype helps families to see, hear, write, and archive messages with one another at no cost beyond their Internet service bill.