Owen's X10 Blog

In the past few years I’ve noticed a change in the way I communicate with my friends and family. Most of the change revolves around the fact that everyone I know has a cell phone, even my mom. Clearly, a cell phone is a lot different from a typical house phone…but in more ways that you might think. In the past we’ve typically had one phone number per household. Now we have the landline and the cell lines. A cell phone has become part of the person who owns it. It’s become less of a telephone and more like an intercom. With people calling in whenever they have a passing thought they want you to know about. Don’t get me wrong I love mine, well love is a strong way of putting it – but I do appreciate the convenience it gives me.

Have you ever called someone’s cell and let it rang and rang all the while imagining them just hitting the ignore button, or choosing not to answer. I have had that feeling many times whether calling a sister or a good friend. I have even been on the opposite side where I just really didn’t feel like answering another call. Our old home phones give us legitimate reasons for missing calls and since we aren’t always there we receive less personal phone calls. That makes the ones we do get a little more special.
That’s what communicating with those you care about should be, special. I’ve been pondering this cell phone situation for a long time. We now have text messages, email, live voice chat, instant messaging, and cell phones. All of these things have made it easier to communicate with the world, but doesn’t a lot of it seem impersonal? I know of many instances of emails being misconstrued as having a cold or angry tone. Wouldn’t it be better if we could be face to face during these interactions?

That’s part of the equation we are working on here at X10. Bringing people together through convenient communication, while adding the personal factor of being able to see smiles, frowns, and tears. Isn’t physical communication an important part of understanding what someone is trying to convey. Without seeing them, they might be saying yes while their face and body language clearly are saying no.