I hosted a baby shower for sweet Rachel today. Thing is, she lives in MA now, while a bunch of us wanting to celebrate her impending motherhood are in CA. I proposed using iSight to beam her in for a shower in our living room since I'm so used to iSight on our large screen TV with my parents in Tokyo. Once Rachel agreed it would be worth trying out, I then actually started wondering how it would go. Would it be too strange for people to interact with a TV screen for several hours? Would we all gather around at once, or would people take turns having one on one conversations?
I'm happy to say, the experience worked brilliantly for everyone. Rachel had her friend Sarah join her on her side so she wouldn't be alone, and they stayed online for over 3 hours! At first, we all stared at the TV/Rachel as she talked, but gradually people went to get food, or broke into small groups. It seemed entirely natural as different people found themselves chatting with Rachel at different times. No one felt obliged to sit still in front of the TV.
Kerry kindly lead a beautiful ritual, and we all felt so connected even via the internet. We had just as much messages of love and tears of happiness as any other baby shower...although we certainly wished we could give her giant hugs.
I wonder how many other iSight baby showers have occurred. I imagine that even though for us this is quite a "first," by Tesla's adult age, these sort of tech interactions will be completely the norm. Anyhow, most important was we accomplished what we wanted - gather together, send our love to Rachel, and appreciate all our friendships. Check out the pics.
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