I realize that video-chatting teenagers everywhere already know this, but last night, while holing up in my hotel and preparing for the Conference on College Composition and Communication, I checked in with my family by video call.

My wife, who usually doesn’t really care for computers at all, was interested enough to hang around for most of the call.

I’ve participated in video calls before at work, but I really felt like I was living in the future when I could see and talk to my family like this.

At $12.95 for 24 hours, the WiFi here at the conference hotel is expensive, but once I made the plunge it made sense to make the best of it.