{"id":16450,"date":"2022-07-21T06:04:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T10:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=16450"},"modified":"2022-07-17T10:53:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T14:53:15","slug":"next-best-thing-to-being-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=16450","title":{"rendered":"Next best thing to being there"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am grateful for video chat technology. <\/p>\n<p>Whether it is Facetime, WhatsApp, Zoom, Webex, Teams, Duo, Hangouts, Messenger or whatever, I have been feeling blessed to have access to such technologies over the past two years.<\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=14078\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I referred to video chat<\/a> as the &#8216;the next best thing&#8217;, but acknowledged that &#8220;it just isn\u2019t the same as being there&#8221;. No, it isn&#8217;t. But video calling sure helps, when being there just isn&#8217;t possible.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, I spent time with my one-year-old grandson who normally lives 3 time zones away. We don&#8217;t get to be up-close and personal often enough, but we usually start each day with a virtual breakfast together. That meant that we weren&#8217;t strangers when we got together in real-time, in real-life. I had a similar experience last November when I met my (then 15-month old) granddaughter for the first time, after COVID-induced travel restrictions were lifted.<\/p>\n<p>With each of the kids, there was an immediate attachment &#8211; reaching to touch the life-sized version of the person they recognized from the small screen of their parents&#8217; phones.<\/p>\n<p>We have come a long way from the <a href=\"https:\/\/ethw.org\/Picturephone\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AT&#038;T Picturephone<\/a> demonstrated at the 1964 World&#8217;s Fair, but the concept is the same. <\/p>\n<p>I salute all of those involved in making the technology as functional and economical as it is today. <\/p>\n<p>Thank you for making it easier to keep connected. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am grateful for video chat technology. Whether it is Facetime, WhatsApp, Zoom, Webex, Teams, Duo, Hangouts, Messenger or whatever, I have been feeling blessed to have access to such technologies over the past two years. Two years ago, I referred to video chat as the &#8216;the next best thing&#8217;, but acknowledged that &#8220;it just &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=16450\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Next best thing to being there<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Next best thing to being there &#8226; Telecom Trends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am grateful for video chat technology. Whether it is Facetime, WhatsApp, Zoom, Webex, Teams, Duo, Hangouts, Messenger or whatever, I have been feeling &#8226; July 21, 2022\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=16450\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Next best thing to being there &#8226; Telecom Trends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am grateful for video chat technology. Whether it is Facetime, WhatsApp, Zoom, Webex, Teams, Duo, Hangouts, Messenger or whatever, I have been feeling &#8226; July 21, 2022\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=16450\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Telecom Trends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-21T10:04:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mark_logo_png-scaled.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1061\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mark_goldberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mark_goldberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=16450#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=16450\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7a2b80bac06ee3d5cacca8c7708bfe8f\"},\"headline\":\"Next best thing to being there\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-21T10:04:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=16450\"},\"wordCount\":242,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=16450#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=16450\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=16450\",\"name\":\"Next best thing to being there &#8226; Telecom Trends\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-21T10:04:20+00:00\",\"description\":\"I am grateful for video chat technology. 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