MrsGreen2013

Hi All

Please please please tell me someone else on here HATES facetime etc
I feel awful my parents love to facetime to keep in touch but I cannot stand it. I am sure it is completely psychological and I am probably over reacting however facetiming or skyping any more than one person is impossible for me I hate it.

I am really struggling with keeping in contact with family whilst being here, everyone seems to text to 'make an appointment' for a facetime or call - why cant people just pick up the old fashioned telephone and if I am there, I will answer, if not leave a message and I will call you back. If someone makes an appointment with me find myself dreading "having to call".

I have a "facetime" appointment tonight with my mum,dad,brother,sister-in-law and their new baby - all 4 are on holiday in Oz and want to facetime - I am coming out in hives just thinking about it - four faces staring at me through my computer eeerrgggghhhh !

Ok I am ranting like a lunatic but I did wonder if anyone else has a dislike for facetime/skype. I love normal spontaneous phone calls, I dont even mind a spontaneous facetime if it is 1-1 (not two parents starting at me down my phone talking over each other ...) and I love texts and emails.

I find having to keep in touch with people really hard since being here - all those family and friends who are expecting emails and phone calls/skypes from me..... who however, never randomly pick up the phone or email me 'just because'. I feel like if i didnt call/email - no one would bother with me... but still feel guilty if I dont.

Does anyone else find communication stressful since being here?

barnsleymat

If I were you I'd set off some pretty hefty downloads just before the Skype/FaceTime session and this will probably cripple the connection enough to spoil the internet speed.

Hey presto. They'll have to ring you on the dog n bone.

BEVS

We don't facetime or skype . I've no desire to start that malarky. Far too intrusive .

People want us? They phone or email .

Jerseygirl

Agreed. The only person I FT with is my daughter.

j19fmm

I skype with my aged father as he loves it, makes him feel like he's here with us, and the kids can just wander past and say Hi!
Also with my bestest friend, it's like having a coffee together.
My OH tries skype with his kids (19 and 16) in the uk , but it's always really painful - as in lots of silences and you feel they can think of a million other things to be doing.
Guess it's a personal thing and what you're used to x

Hebe

I facetime all the time. Love it and feel connected

calman014

Facetime is a godsend, and Skype a worthy backup for expensive phone calls. Hey, if there is something you don't like about the calls talk to the person on the other end and get them to change their habits. My Dad had a habit of putting his hand over the mic. on his iPad so I couldn't hear a thing..or he would rotate it every 2 minutes..then I suggested an "iPad Stand" now it produces great images and I can actually hear him and have a decent conversation. If you are not a FaceTime type, just share a photo stream and top it up with "what I've been doing" photos accompanied by regular e-mails.. Good Luck.

PS: You can now turn off the video feed in FaceTime, 'Facetime Audio'..so it becomes a phone call in effect.

The last resort is to send an e-mail saying "Sorry, I use Android"..

M_and_M

I use FaceTime Skype, also BBM (my sister doesn't have a land line) and whatsapp, as well as Facebook.

My UK friends say they feel like they are better connected to me than when I was in the UK! I have to admit I ditched Facebook for a while but since I moved here I use it a lot more.

I also have a UK Skype number. Whereas I sometime skype on video with my dad, he often calls me, in the traditional sense because it doesn't cost him anything extra - just the cost of a UK call.

Perhaps people don't call you because of the international call costs involved?

TommyLuck

I mainly use Skype for chatting to my folks.

We largely run it ad-hoc. Either I'll message Mum, or she'll message me and we'll check if the other is available. If not, we try again next time.

We probably speak on Skype once a month and use Facebook messaging the rest of the time.

Mum will however pre-warn me if she is having family over so we can then plan to have a yarn.

Otherwise, with mates and my siblings it's WhatsApp - they seem to be cool with not wanting to physically see us so much, a generational thing I suppose.

Skype is such a simple thing, but it's been a god send for taking the edge off of particularly being able to see my daughter.

Sparkleydiva

Love facetime - think its great BUT I'm with you on the frustration of having to make an appointment to talk. For over 6 years now my mum (and dad previously) always emailed to make an appointment to talk - aarrgghh....

Now I try and just surprise her, but because I do that she forgets to answer facetime on her ipad and uses her phone - but can't work it Then makes an appointment for a longer chat at the weekend...

Can't win

Bo-Jangles

After ten years away it's really hard to keep the conversation alive with my parents - the once a week phone call, as regular as clockwork for half an hour is what I get regardless of whether there's anything to talk about or not.

Beyond the opening conversation of what time is it and what's the weather like, I find it a real chore if I'm honest and wish they would Skype or otherwise so at least others could join in or add some interest or real life context to the conversation. Even if it was just a cat or a child wandering through, or I could show her my dinner or a pile of ironing or something to add a bit of something more exciting to talk about.

calman014

With iOS 8 you can now send pre-recorded messages..may be that would help!! ;-)

dfjordan

I used to have exactly the same problem, and my wife ended up really tense knowing that on a specific day at the same specific time, the phone would ring, followed by the same questions that you have, then the silence unless I could think of something meaningless to say. In the end confronted the situation and said it was ridiculous to call someone unless there was something to say. They didnt like it but it solved the problem. Now we talk maybe once a month.

moving2NZ2013

Haha I know what you mean, we are bugged to Skype once a week to most people that adds up to a silly amount of skypeing there is away so they can't see your face haha but they're always saying oh we can't see you. Errr yes I just woke up leave me alone lol. My Skype kept answering automatically then I'd here hello I can't see you. Wtf lol

U can get a USB phone lol

moving2NZ2013

yeh what time is it. How's the weather. It's pain staking if I'm honest lol. They wanted all set time slots so it means I have to get up early Sunday morning and feel my morning full of peoples faces on screen. I don't do mornings lol.