Shouguang City, China rests over 8,000 miles away from our little town of Cleveland, Tennessee. In February of 2007, my best friend got engaged to a wonderful man. She was also my roommate at the time. Once she and her new fiancé announced their wedding party, one name on the groom side did not ring a bell in my mind. “Josh,” the fiancé said. “Josh?” I replied with a puzzled look. “Yes, Josh, you met him a year ago at my house when we had that Halloween party, remember?” “Oh I remember. The curly haired guy! He made me laugh.” “Well,” said the fiancé, “you should get to know him even better because you’re walking with him in the wedding.” With that information, I quickly logged onto the popular social networking site, Myspace.com. After looking him up, I sent him a quick message announcing the news of my awesome roommate’s engagement and the fact that we will be spending time together at the wedding. Upon sending the message, I noticed that the location of where he was from, (or location he was currently living in) said “Shouguang City, China.” “China?!” I thought to myself. Either he was just being silly on Myspace, or maybe he really does live in China. Browsing through his page, I wondered back to view his pictures. “He looks Caucasian,” I said to myself. I talked with my roommate the next day and came to find out that Josh was in an English teaching program in China and well I found that extremely interesting so I logged onto Myspace and found a message from him. Josh was interested in me. He asked great questions about where I was from, how I like Lee and how long I’ve known my roommate. I responded and elaborated on every question. I then asked him questions about his life in China, before China and why he chose that program. We became great pin-pals or e-pals (electronic pals) I like say.
China is an exact twelve-hour time difference from Cleveland, TN. When I woke up in the morning, I had message waiting for me from Josh that he had written before starting his day. I then would write back before I ended my day and so on and so on. We quickly found out that the “online” notice that Myspace is equipped with was blinking every time we would log on. Josh and I were online at the same time and then thought it was silly to keep sending emails and messages when we could just talk instantly. He wrote one day explaining a new innovation he had downloaded on his computer to keep in touch with friends and family members in the states.
Skype is a voice-over internet protocol system that not only allows you to instant message, but it also allows you to call cell phones, land phones and computers with the same program. That was enough convincing to me. I downloaded Skype right away. Around this same time period, my brother had emailed me from Iraq telling me of Skype as well. He told me to buy a webcam and I could talk and see him. Again, that was enough convincing for me. Josh and I used this technology to the fullest. We were able to call and use the web cam, tell jokes, talk all day, talk all night. Josh always put a set amount of money in his Skype account and would call from his computer to my cell phone for only two cents a minute. When I used my cell phone, oops, to call his room number in China, it would cost fourteen dollars just to connect the call and then a killer twenty-one cents a minute. Of course cell phone providers offer an international package but even then rates and taxes can cost quite a bit. Believe it or not, Josh and I were able to fall in love soon after his return to the United States. We were able to build and maintain an incredible relationship from the power of a message and a conversation. Dialogue with Josh today is comfortable, fluent and unproblematic since we have such a strong foundation. I am sure Josh and I would have met eventually in life, but through voice-over internet protocol and even social networking, it definitely made it uncomplicated.
Stories in history remind us that letters through mail can be lost or delivered incorrectly causing confusion, heartbreak and turmoil and sometimes leading to an eternal break-up of a relationship. Those relationships, both business and personal, can be lost and sometimes never started due to long distances.
Voice-over Internet Protocol has a lot of answers to many of these challenges. Internet itself became internationally popular in the late 1980’s and electronic mail started a new wave of sending a message. With the increase in internet speed over the years, the more instant these messages started to send. Even though Josh and I began emailing each other when we first made our initial contact, we quickly discovered that we craved more of a personal touch to our messages. Instant messaging definitely helped but voice to voice conversation and of course putting a face to it made it that much more pleasant.
