the next generation

I was in the mall with one of my friends yesterday and we walked pass FYE, the music store. My friend looked over at the rows of cds and said, "Wow! I can't believe they are still even making those!" I thought to myself, "is she joking???" I had to ask her to repeat it 3 TIMES thinking that I heard her wrong.

Call me outdated, but I don't own an iPod, I don't have iTunes on my computer, my computer won't even accept the download for iTunes, and when I listen to music while i'm cooking dinner it's always coming from the good ol' cd player.

In high school, my bff's first car was this huge banana yellow tank, a seventy-something model, that had an 8-track. We would laugh and laugh because we thought 8-tracks were so old and silly. I sure hope my treasured store-bought compact discs aren't the 8-track of the future.

question...

What is "skyping" and why do I seem to be the last person under the age of 35 to be in the know? I mean, I thought I was a pretty savvy gal but this one's got me puzzled. I feel like that stupid word is everywhere I turn these days - in other friend's blogs, on their facebook pages, and even on professional business cards! SKYPING? I assume that it's some form of communication, possibly of the internet medium, but that is just not enough.

I google....

and UnifiedCommunications.com says,"Skype is an IP telephony service provider that offers free calling between subscribers and low-cost calling to people who don't use the service. In addition to standard telephone calls, Skype enables file transfers, texting, video chat and videoconferencing. The service is available for desktop computers, notebook and tablet computers and other mobile devices, including mobile phones. A number of companies, including Skype, produce dedicated Skype phones."


I'm still confused. Telephone? Computer? Texting? I'm obviously out of the technological loop and need someone to pull me back in ASAP!