It's hard being away from the people you love. Grandparents thousands of miles away from grandchildren, a spouse travelling for work, or even just friends scattered to the wind after college. Yes, there's mail, phone, email and a list of other options available, but when you really just want to SEE the person, Skype is often the first program that comes to mind.
Now, mind you, Skype is not just for video chatting (talking to someone over video a la The Jetsons), but also does normal instant messaging, voice calling and is coming out with new and improved features every day. Its bread and butter though, what it's most known for, is video chatting. Both people need to have a Skype account, which is free and easy to set up, and when they're both using the Skype program, they can click a video camera button to start up the cameras on their respective machines and they'll be able to see each other in pretty-darn-close-to-real-time.
A good example of this is actually one of my own stories. When my husband and I were getting married, my mother couldn't come because she had knee surgery and couldn't travel. She had her computer connected to her TV, invited all the family and friends who couldn't make it over, popped popcorn and found comfy chairs. I simply logged into Skype on my smartphone, connected to her, said "Hi," and had one of my cousins hold the phone from the front row so my family thousands of miles away could watch the entire ceremony!
Practical Tip of the Day:
The next biggest thing Skype is known for is called VOIP, which stands for "voice over IP", which, in plain English means, using the Internet like a phone. This is popular because it means that you can make calls between computers instead of having to pay hefty international calling fees. VOIP calls aren't free, mind you, but they are usually significantly cheaper than through the phone companies. Check out Skype's webpage for more information about the costs associated with calling the various countries.
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