The internet has made the world much smaller and that's a fact.

I was an early user of Skype and while I can't remember exactly when it may well have been back in 2003. I was particularly keen to do this as I don't live in my native country and it is a good way to keep in touch.  As far as i am concerned while Skype has its issues it still holds its own against much of the software that has since entered the game.

Covid of course accelerated things. In fact since March 2019 when we first went into lockdown  I have literally only had THREE face to face client meetings and everything has shifted online. With us having a baby last year in April this has given me the bonus of having more time together as a family than if I had been going out to work in a traditional sense. In the last few months of working my wife before going on maternity leave my wife switched to working online from home even though she works for an organisation where security is paramount - even more so then in regular business.

I have family living back home in the UK and in France. In addition I have good friends in the US, Canada and even Albania and Kosova and it is frankly inconvenient to take time to fly out to visit when a cheaper and frankly more comfortable to do it from home.

Yesterday, while I would have preferred to have been there in person, I attended my first virtual funeral and I suspect that it won't be the last. As a family we are still fairly locked down to protect our little one as much as possible against Covid so when my uncle died back at the end of June going to the UK wasn't a real option despite my personal wish to go.

Sometimes we have to lay aside our personal wishes.

And so yesterday was built around me being able to attend and this is the wonder of the internet. I even arrived before anybody else as they filed in for the service three or four minutes after I had entered the feed.

Having been to other funerals the most significant thing that I noticed was that unlike when you are there in person there is some kind of emotional distance as it is not an immersive experience. I did however feel saddened as the service finished and I guess that it was because that was the moment that represented a final goodbye to my late uncle.

I shared my experience in a brief post on Noise Cash yesterday and one respondee said that although he had never attended a virtual funeral he'd attended a virtual wedding. While I don't know any cases of this I wouldn't be surprised if, especially concerning Covid, if there have been fathers witnessing first scans and maybe even the birth of their children. 

I wasn't able to attend scans for our little one due to Covid and when he was born I had to wait in an adjoining room after a Covid test and afterwards I got to spend the first two hours of his life on my own with him.

If yesterday taught me anything it is that while the experience online is probably less authentic and emotionally charged it is better than not being there and it is still respectful.

It has also become apparent that it is now possible to experience people's most significant life experiences literally from the cradle to the grave in the virtual world

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing stay safe and stay well.