Author: icampbell
Nowadays, having a webcam is a must for any savvy internet user. If you don’t have one yet, or you don’t understand what the fuss is about, you might be surprised by the different uses.
The most obvious use, and the most common one, is to spice up online chat. When instant messaging services were first introduced they were purely text based, meaning tone and therefore meaning was lost. This led to the introduction of emoticons – or smilies – to reflect a user’s reaction and when they were joking. This, of course, is nowhere near as good as being able to see a human face and now webcams allow participants to see each other’s faces, meaning they know when a comment comes with a cheeky smile or an angry scowl.
It’s also a good way of keeping in touch with people who live too far away to meet up with on a personal basis. If you’ve just moved to university, for example, it lets you see how your friends from school or back home are faring. Similarly, if you’re on holiday it lets you show off your tan to everyone back home, or if someone you know has just had a child it lets you keep up with their growth and progress.
Webcams are also a great way to show off! If you learnt a new skill – such as a hot new dance move – it’s much more fun to show your friends the move than simply type about it. The prominence of video sharing sites now means that after all your friends have seen you in action, you can find a wider audience to appreciate your skills.
Video blogging has become a huge craze as well. People have realised that they don’t need journalism skills in order to get their point across now and often the zanier they can act, the more popular they can become. Many companies have noticed that some video creators are highly talented and some have gone so far as to create competitions for users to create their next advert.
Other companies have been using user-generated content as well – the laughter chain, for example, is an online project trying to prove that the proverb ‘Laugh and the world laughs with you’ is true by getting people to send clips of themselves chortling, giggling or sniggering, whilst many music videos now contain clips of fans singing or air guitaring along to a single.
Of course, to get in on the action you’ll need to get yourself set up with a webcam and then the possibilities online are practically endless.
Isla Campbell writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.
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