skype skipping

There is one technology new to me which I have embraced and attempted to love. My son is in London for the semester and "skyping" is our means of communication. When it works, it is amazing...we are having a conversation, I am seeing him, getting a tour of his room, watching him eat biscuits. He sees the whole family in action, the beagle even sings to him. I may even get more of a conversation than if we were face to face. To his delight, I can't touch him and to ours, we can't smell him. BUT.....when it doesn't work the frustration is huge. We say hello, then he starts to break up, freezes or disconnects and we spend most of our time redialing and saying "Can you hear me?". I understand the wonders of what this instant communication can bring and am in awe when successful. The successes seem to be about 10% of the time, hence the frustration. It is an interesting dilemma. As I enter this era of technology, I am amazed by the possibilities it brings but find myself increasingly frustrated by how reliant we become on innovations that break down. "In the olden days" when I backpacked through Europe, my parents heard from me in the form of an occasional postcard. That was the extent of the expectation. Now I expect to have casual conversations with him on a regular basis and the biggest complication that I willingly accept is the time difference. How spoiled we become! I have just spent about 1/2 hour getting to talk to him for about 5 minutes. What a magical 5 minutes! What a frustrating 25. Despite the frustrations of the failures, I would have to say that the cup is half full when it comes to skype. We will be seeing him face to face (touching and smelling) in 6 days in London. I will be able to tell whether those dark shadows I see in his eyes are due to the quality of the camera/angle/lighting in his dorm room or if I should have brought chicken soup with me!