Skype makes monsters of us all

[Commentary] When God saw that our egos needed deflating, he invented Skype. Skype is the 21st century invention that sci-fi movies had been predicting for decades: phonavision. Actually it's "computavision," with a tiny camera at the top of your computer screen. Very "Futurama." But what "Soylent Green" and other futurist movies didn't tell us is that this new invention makes you look like you died a week ago Thursday.

[Shakely is a novelist, a former newspaper editor and president emeritus of the California Community Foundation.]