The Web Cam

March 17, 2007

The Web Cam. Although this technological gadget has been around for a while, my family is now beginning to see the great advantages that the web cam has to offer.

The first advantage is one of the obvious; you have the opportunity to talk “face to face” with people all over the world. Hilary, my sister, lives in England and can’t have her first child without having a proper baby shower. No problem. Send out the invitations, set up the web cam, have the guests gather around the computer, and voilà! You have a baby shower.

Hilary had her sister-in-law Jenni join the party on her end. Just as if there were sitting in the room, they saw all the cute baby cloths, bottles, bibs and blankets pass in front of the camera. Oooing and awwwing with the rest as is custom when a group of women gather at any type of shower.

Games can be played as well. One of the staples at any baby shower is the Try to Guess the Size of the Mother-to-be’s Belly game. Again, no problem. Have her stand up and show that belly off and let the guessing begin. I will say that the web cam does add an element of challenge to this game. With the picture being so small there isn’t a lot of help of a size comparison to aid in the guessing.

The second advantage was a little less obvious than the first. Believe it or not, a web cam makes you a little more self aware. If you look at the picture to the right you will notice a smaller display box beneath the display box with Hilary showing off her cute, neat, little bump. That display box shows what your camera is seeing (In this case it is someone taking a picture of the computer. I have a feeling it is my mom.). When you are talking to someone, you have the opportunity to see what you look like when you are talking to someone in an every day conversation. Let me tell you, it is not like watching yourself talk in the mirror (Don’t deny it. You know you have.)

I for one know my face has a lot of expression when I talk. But I had no idea how much. I am consistently saying something none verbally. I noticed that my face gives out more information than I want it to sometimes. I also discovered that I am constantly moving. My hands fly all over the place (Thanks mom. I get it from you). This was not a hard one to notice because my web cam has a slight delay so if I am not careful my hands and arms become a white blur on the screen. Although this can be quite annoying during a serious conversation, it also can cause a great amount of laughter as you try to see all the weird things you can do. Hours of fun, I am telling you! Hours of Fun!

And the third advantage doesn’t apply to everyone but it certainly applies to those people like me that live in small towns or really don’t have a lot going on in their lives giving some free time to spare. Also, being a photo major in college I am more naturally inclined to do something like this. The web cam is a great tool to assist in your very own photo shoot. The great thing is you can see what the picture is going to look like before you take it. You have full control over your own self portrait. Combine those photos with the photo editing program Picasa (which you can download free thanks to those wonderful folks at Google) and you will have semi professional looking pictures featuring you as the photographer and the model. Oh the world of possibilities. Happy Web Caming!