The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

I was just reading an article on CNN Tech News about Facebook adding a new feature -- voice chat (http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/15/cnet.facebook.voice.chat/index.html?iref=newssearch). So you know the old adage, "the more things change, the more they stay the same. I can't help but think back over the past 8 years about my niece's communication evolution.

It all started with regular land-line communications. My niece would call her friends, ask them if they wanted to get together and go do something, they'd hang up, go meet somewhere, and talk face-to-face. At the most, she had call waiting.

Somewhere around 13-14 years old, along came Microsoft IM -- instant messaging to those of us who still speak in complete sentences. My niece was on the computer nonstop "chatting" with her friends. She even showed me how to do it, so I would IM with her myself from time to time.

Then around 15 maybe, she got her first cell phone. The phone was glued to her ear as she talked incessantly with her friends -- put one person on hold, talk to another, go back to the one on hold, put her back on hold, talk to someone else, and on and on. And the fights with her parents were on. "No phone calls during dinner time." "Get off that phone and get your homework done." "Does that thing ever stop ringing."

The phone calls tapered off as MySpace suddenly became the communication tool of choice. How many "friends" could you add to your account? She was sharing information about herself with people she really didn't know but a friend, of a friend, of a friend said it would OK to add this person to her MySpace page.

I don't even know when this happened, but all of a sudden, she wasn't "talking" on the phone as much anymore and she wasn't in front of her computer -- she was typing on a keyboard on her phone and sending text message to everyone. At least she was resting her neck from holding the phone against her ear and moving the stress points to her thumbs. The constantly ringing phone was replaced with a quick "bell" sound or a vibration noise to alert her to a new text message.

When she went off to college, she bagged her MySpace account and started one on FaceBook. She kept updating it for a while until one day she told me, "Aunt Janie, it's boring to go out to FaceBook anymore. I don't even update it anymore." Occassionally, she checks her account when she has time. She's still texting though.

Now FaceBook is adding Voice Chat. It seems to me she's back where she started -- talking on the phone. It's the same thing even if you add the video component. It's "virtual" face-to-face conversations.

And if you really want to stretch it, aren't "tweets" a little bit like hollering over the fence to your neighbor when you were a kid.