connect!
February 2004
by Ellen Joy Anastacio

In this increasingly wired world of ours, one can never be too far away. Whether you're in Dubai, Paris, Venice, San Francisco, Hong Kong or Brazil, you're always just a phone call or an e-mail away.

And in the Philippines, where having family, friends, or sweethearts abroad is commonplace, finding the best (and cheapest!) ways of communicating has become a necessity. When finding ways to do so can also answer the question, "How do I love thee?" Then let me count the ways.

Snail Mail. Greeting cards, letters and pictures sent via post gives one actual, tangible messages. The downside is that postal services remains slow. The upside? You get to hold the letter while you're in bed, gaze at the pictures before you sleep and dream away.

Phone Calls. Gone are the days when you have to go through a telephone operator to call long distance. I remember how when I was a kid, we'd crowd around our phone and listen to my mom talking to the operator after she called 109. Charge Manila, person to person please! And believe me, calling long distance then was a lot more expensive. Now, you can dial directly through your mobile phone or landline, for 40 US cents a minute. Still a bit steep, but a 5-minute call can go a long way when you miss your sweetie so much! 

Text Messaging. Practically everyone has a cellphone nowadays. As the big bad wolf would say, the better to talk to you with, my dear. And with text messaging being a lot cheaper than calling, Filipino thumbs have certainly gotten a workout. And as international text became available a few years ago, forwarded messages ranging from the funny to the mushy have transcended international boundaries. Messages to say good morning, good night and everything in between can cost as little as P10! And with multimedia messages fast becoming the norm, pictures may even be sent in an instant!

E-mail. Thanks to more affordable Internet rates, prepaid cards, Internet cafes, and free e-mail providers, it's become so much easier to get in touch online. E-mail provides a great way to communicate those stories that are too long for a long distance phone call. You are unlimited in what you can say; as long as you can type it, you can send it. And as a plus point, this provides a great way to send pictures that can be viewed instantly. No more envelopes that say "Please do not fold, pictures inside." Just attach the files to your e-mail and voila, you'll get to see your boyfriend's cute face peeking out at you on your computer.

Chat. From mIRC, Pirch, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger, these combine a lot of the elements of the above ways. You can chat via the text window, send files while the two of you are online, and for the lucky, a couple of these applications (for instance, Yahoo! Messenger), can actually enable you to engage in a voice conference. This means that you can talk through your computer while wearing a headset, as if you're using your mobile phone..for free! You can even connect a webcam and actually see your friend from across the seas!

And with all these getting more ubiquitous and less costly with time, expect better things ahead. So if you're far away, don't despair. Talking to your loved one can be as easy as pressing 1-2-3.

If you haven't done so yet, it's never too late to start getting connected.

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