Skype – brilliant invention that traps you on interminable calls

For the few who missed it, the Truman Show was a cracking movie based around the premise of a main character whose every move can be watched by the world at large, because his life is in effect just a television show.

For the rest of us that nightmare scenario is simply known as Skype.

Time was the phone was a thing on the wall or in the hall, which you cradled to your ear and half-listened to what someone else was saying from the other end of the line.

You might be keeping an eye on the telly at the same time, or trying to eat your dinner between snippets of chat – or just daydreaming while sort of taking things in.

But then came Skype, which removed all hiding places in one fell swoop – and because it was free to use for those with phone deals or just access to the internet, there was no monetary impediment to rabbiting on for ever and a day.

Even worse, because this isn’t just an audio facility, now you have to maintain eye contact with the person talking to you; you cannot quietly type or tap into your phone, or watch TV with the sound down.

And if someone else inadvertently wanders into the room, the person at the other end of Skype wants to know who it is and will want to know if they can have a bir of a chat with them as well.

But overriding all of that is the fact that it’s free – so it can go on for hours for no real reason; no pips to tell you that you need two more tuppences for the next three minutes…now the day is yours to chat to your heart’s content.

The upshot of all that is that phrases like “that’s about it” or “I’ve nothing else, now” should no longer be taken as an indication that the conversation is reaching its natural conclusion.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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