Land line v Skype
A few years ago a good friend of mine and I would speak on the phone every Sunday religiously.
He is extremely well-informed in most areas and I cherished those conversations.
We decided to revive them.
We went back to our traditional means of communication – the landline.
We had an unwritten rule then not to speak of politics and now we avoid the virus.
However when I suggest my idea of a “virtual” cocktail hour conversation, the reply from other pals is inevitably “are you on Skype or Zoom?”
I am not intuitively enamoured of such methods but there is practical problem as, when I upgraded my mobile, they also did the same to my iPad.
I managed with some difficulty to insert the new SIM card in the iPad but I needed to call the company to cancel the old one and this is not classified as urgent.
Hence I cannot make or receive calls on my iPad.
Nonetheless I had two Skype calls yesterday.
The first was to Grania in Malta.
She has a first class degree in immunology and her opinion is always worth listening to.
I can recall one conversation in which she informed me of the ways the microbes with no brain outwit the human body by leapfrogging over one another.
Recently she told me the Coronavirus from bats in China has long worried her colleagues in the lab.
I had some difficulty in connecting with her and the image was not precise. I pushed a button to enlarge it but Grania later informed me this was snapshot and the pictures – perfectly innocent facial ones – are recorded.
She also said these are easy to access.
I therefore deleted them so a Skype call is not a secure one.
I question also the need to see a face.
It reminds me of an article in that anarchic comic mag MAD which I read in my youth. Predicting the picture phone MAD had a series of invented back screens to confuse the other caller.
The current most popular mode of communication is WhatsApp.
Every day I must get 5 videos or photos of varying humour on it. I am sure these are well-intentioned to lift the spirit.
However my spirits are better raised, large gin and tonic in hand, in conversation with my old friend on my secure landline.
