The last time I visited my parents, my father asked me “what this Skype thing was all about?” Now, my dad uses his laptop for typing documents and playing solitaire. He barely knows how to use the internet, let alone anything as fancy as Skype. Anyway, given his question, I thought I would explain this simple and useful tool to the last remaining technophobes in the room.

Skype is an easy to operate communication program which allows you to speak to friends and family through the internet. You can do this by instant messaging, voice or video. Importantly, calls can be made to normal telephone lines so the recipient does not have to have their computer on while you call.

The key thing about Skype is that, for calls between computers, it won’t cost you a penny. If you are calling a land line, you pay through a debit card system for credits. However, this usually costs you substantially less than a normal phone call.

Skype is a great way to catch up with relatives or friends on the other side of the world while avoiding heavy bills. For people like my dad, any new technology seems scary but this is the simplest tool to operate. Downloading the program takes seconds and registering is straightforward. Once registered, simply find out the Skype user names of the people you wish to contact and add them to your list. When you are signed in, it will flag up on your screen whether these people are logged in and ready to take your calls. A simple click and you can be talking to your cousin who recently emigrated to Australia. Use the video function and you can see how your relatives have changed!

For the uninitiated, Skype is a useful tool for everyone – certainly not just for the technically-minded!

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Now, please don’t get me wrong; I absolutely adore my tech, but I am determined not to let it take over my life either… Basically what I am saying is that I always try my best to maintain some sort of balance. You see, I’ve got this nagging fear of becoming an out and out geek if I don’t (which would be pretty jolly boring!). And what exactly do I mean by ‘balance’? Well, I will try my best to explain…

Let’s say I needed to keep in regular contact a company like ‘ Red Diesel Manchester ‘ for work purposes for example; half the time I would simply send them an email…. however on just as many other occasions I would make a point of writing them a good old fashioned letter instead. You may think this sounds a bit strange, but I think it’s really important to go ‘old school'sometimes. I mean, just imagine how boring the world would be if everything was done via email and no-one bothered to write letters anymore…

And exactly the same philosophy applies when I decide to purchase a new gadget. It’s like when I bought my new ‘home cinema system’. I love to make full use of this and the quality is amazing. However, when I first got it, I made a pact with myself; ‘I will still go out to the proper cinema sometimes’. And I’m happy to say that I’ve stuck to this self-imposed arrangement! You see, if I hadn’t then I’d be in serious danger of becoming a total hermit in the evenings.

Now you are probably beginning to understand what I am trying to say. There is nothing at all wrong with rushing out to buy the latest gizmos, but we shouldn’t allow them to change the way that we live entirely. Because if we do, then we are at risk of cutting ourselves off from others and losing our own identities…

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