Did you ever watch Felicity? It was a fairly popular show back around the turn of the century about a girl who moved to NYC from California to go to college. The show often started and ended with the narrative of her recorded voice which she was recording to send to a penpal we never got to see on the show. I had always thought it was a cumbersome form of communication. The recordings were made on tape which would have taken up a lot of storage space, especially in a small college dorm room. It also seemed to be more expensive than a regular letter because they were sending each other packages. And you have to go to the post office to send a package to make sure you get the correct postage while letters can be posted in the mail box down the road. Despite all these negatives, there is something nice about hearing a close friend's voice. Almost like you're sitting down with them and having a cup of tea together.
I'm telling you all this because a friend of mine recently sent me a recorded message and since she did, we have had a to and fro of ten minute recorded messages. With email and mics on computers, it's a much easier method of communication than it was in Felicity's time. I also like it a lot better than straight email. It's quick, we can do something else at the same time as recording, we definitely don't need to proofread what we've written as we would with email, there are no time zone differences or babies needing our attention, or lagging internet as there sometimes are with Skype. And we have the added bonus of hearing each other speak. Lovely.
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