Each month my Vodafone bill tells me I have 20 unused video calling minutes. Or it might be 40. Either way I really don’t care. I’m just amazed that they persist in the notion that video calling is at all useful. I can’t recall ever seeing someone make a video call, and the couple of times I’ve tried it were strictly to allow the other party to see something.

Yet last week, when earnestly speaking at my computer for a Skype-based conference call, I found myself wanting the video I’m used to with point-to-point Skype computer calling.

So what’s the difference?

I think it’s all to do with what you’re looking at, what you’re focusing on, while you are talking. When using a handset, and I use the word deliberately, an expectation is set that you are not looking at the device. It’s beside your head. So video calling with a conventional mobile device creates significant cognitive dissonances, or in ordinary speak, it doesn’t feel right. Desktop phones are broadly the same - we are conditioned to not look at the handset while we are making a call.

But computer screens were made for looking at, so it feels completely natural. Perhaps an example of convgence having the desired effect of being bigger than the sum of the parts.

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