Communication Twilight Zone

I was in a weird moment with my friend Ming from Laos. I saw her online at ym and decided to bug her about setting up Skype.

I had set up Skype but I haven't had a single conversation save for the test message. Neither of us had headsets with microphones, my laptop had a built-in mic, and she could hear audio just fine. So I rang her!


It was pretty strange because I knew I was in a conversation because I could read her responses on ym. She told me there was about a 20 second lag for her messages to reach me, but hey! She could hear me loud and clear after not speaking to each other for months and months.

At some point she thought the connection got cut because I got silent. It was because I was sending replies over ym as well and I thought it would be pretty dumb to say what I was already typing.

In any case the conversation continued, going over mostly what I've been up to here at home. At some point, I started thinking about what was going on, and I'll do my best here to say it concisely.

I said, "It's pretty weird that I feel like I'm talking to myself, only that I'm getting responses from a computer screen window."

"It feels like, I'm praying... like talking to God or something."


Only that I did not hear a disembodied voice, but messages on my screen.

Also, I had thought since there was no voice on the other line to interrupt me, and given the 20 second delay on ym, that I'd go on and on talking unstoppably. During phone conversations, especially over long distances we sort of rush each other to finish so that we can talk again. We even do that face-to-face (as human beings). Instead, I was stammering in places. I didn't know where to start and where to take my monologue.

I don't know if I'm going to have another conversation like that in my life. It did have a singular experience kind of feeling. I definitely am getting myself a headset with mic, and maybe even a webcam. Definitely the world just got smaller in that conversation.