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Interrupted interview: Many students are using Internet video-chatting services such as Skype to keep in touch with distant friends and family. Others have begun to use video chatting for job-seeking and other creative uses, though sometimes the sight of an eagerly Guitar Hero-ing roommate could get in the way.
Video chatting software makes it easier for students to stay in touch with family, lovers and friends, and even apply for jobs
I walked into my room and flopped down on my bed. "How was your meeting?" my boyfriend asked. "Fine," I replied and proceeded to fill him in on what he had missed during the last two hours.
The conversation was typical to those we had every day when we lived together, except that now, my boyfriend was not physically there. He was talking to me through a video chatting program on my computer.
Every day last semester my boyfriend would call me on Skype — a popular Internet-based video chatting computer program — after he finished his duties at his army base. Some days we would talk for hours. On other days, I would leave the phone call open all evening so he would be there to virtually greet me. For us, video chatting wasn't really about chatting; it was about spending time together.
Though relatively few students know the experience of being separated from a significant other in the military, many know what it's like to be apart from loved ones because of school. According to data from the Institute of International Education released earlier this year, 27.5 percent of the KU student body say they have studied abroad. Additionally, more than 1,900 international students currently attend the University, and 26 percent of KU students are from out-of-state, according to the University's website.
As the availability of high-speed Internet increases throughout the world, students will be able to use video chatting programs for a plethora of reasons such as applying for jobs and taking classes — the options are unlimited.
Nima Soleimani, Overland Park senior, says having the ability to video chat made for less heartbreak when his then-girlfriend left the country. Soleimani and his girlfriend used Yahoo! messenger to video chat at first, but later switched to Skype because it streams higher-quality video.
Countless free video chatting programs are available on the Internet and the use of Skype in particular has skyrocketed in the last year, increasing 43 percent.
Julia Ubbenga, Eudora graduate student, used the video component of Skype to talk to her family during the year she taught English in
Spain, "It's just like they're in the other room," she says. "It's like they're right there face-to-face."
Talking to couples who are older and more experienced with long distance relationships prompted Amy Trainor, Chicago freshman, to begin using Skype earlier this semester when she moved to Lawrence. Meanwhile, her boyfriend moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University.
Ubbenga's boyfriend at the time, who is now her husband, thought video chatting was too weird. So instead she used the program to call his phone. Unlike video chatting, calling phones from Skype internationally is not free. It costs about 2 cents per minute, depending on which country you are calling. Skype made it easier for Ubbenga and her husband to continue dating, she says, because she was able to talk to him more often. Skype made it possible for her to call him from home rather than seeking out a pay phone, plus Skype was less expensive for her than international phone calls.
So far, making the relationship work has been easy, partly because of Skype, she says. But video chatting also has its downsides.
When she knows she is going to "see" her boyfriend that day, she takes extra care primping. No matter what she does, though, she feels she always "looks sick" when she watches herself in the video-feed box on the screen.
Students are already using Skype for reasons other than maintaining long-distance relationships. Tommy Del Greco, 2009 graduate, used Skype last spring to apply for three out-of-state jobs. Although he ended up accepting the one job he applied for in person, Del Greco says the video interviews paid off for him. He was later offered one of the jobs he interviewed for on Skype and was the second choice for another. His potential employers seemed impressed that he was innovative and tech savvy, he says, "The phone interviews were OK, but they lacked that certain personal touch," he says.
The only unprofessional aspect of using Skype to conduct an interview, he says, was that he still lived in a scholarship hall at the time and his roommates could be seen walking around in the background.
I settle down at my computer with my dinner, ready to watch the latest episode of The Office online. Yet one thing is still missing. My
computer rings. "Are you ready?" my boyfriend asks. "Yep," I say. We push play simultaneously on our computers. Even distance can't stop us from continuing our Friday-night ritual together.
Using Skype is simple
- Go to www.skype.com and click the download tab at the top of the page.
- If you have a built-in microphone and web cam on your computer, you can begin using Skype as soon as you download the program and restart your computer. If not, you can buy a headset with a microphone and a web cam to plug into your computer for about $20 a piece.
- Skype will prompt you to create a user name the first time you open the application. You may need to download a driver program for your external camera, but that information is also on the Skype download page.
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