There was a time when meeting the children for thanksgiving was a day to look forward to, when watching the tiny toddlers take the first step was a wish, only some fortunate parents could experience firsthand. Others would just have to be satisfied with the description of the event in a letter or a phone call. Then came the Internet and now with the broadband penetration rates doubling every week, it’s not such a big world after all. The recent inclusion of Webcams in most laptops helps account for the 20 percent growth in video calling over the last year, Internet companies are also promoting “video chat” as an enhancement to standard instant-messaging and Internet phone services. Video calling, long anticipated by science fiction, is filtering into everyday use. In a way that e-mailed photos and postcards never could, the webcam promises to transcend both distance and the inability of toddlers to hold up their end of a phone conversation. Some grandparent 'Great onliners enthusiastically say this virtual form of communication makes the actual separation even harder.

Others are so sustained by webcam visits with services like Skype and iChat that they visit less in person. In addition, no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures on their screens.

Via