A bed-ridden grandmother in the hospital is able to virtually attend her grandkids' birthday parties and play with them every day.

My mother actually had a friend that we barely knew, but we accepted her Facebook friend request out of courtesy, and she absolutely gushes about seeing photos of our kids on Facebook. She sends them presents and cards, she knows what they like, we've even started having Facebook calls with her. She's so warm and giving and gives them 100% of her attention, which is something parents just can't do as often as kids would like. They'll go running around the room holding the phone up to different things saying stuff like "Ruth it snowed! Look!" My wife got nervous yesterday because they took the phone outside to play in the snow and were having so much fun throwing snowballs at the phone — I told her screw it, if they break the phone doing something like that I'll buy a new one. It's worth it.

She's like part of our family, and it's all because technology initially allowed her to "passively" participate with us. The relationship grew organically over time the way relationships used to before the internet — you'd see people frequently at work or at the store or in your neighborhood, over time have longer conversations, and ultimately grow to be friends. The same thing happened here: it started with a like or a comment here or there, then a couple messages, then a virtual birthday card… it enables people to remain in communication with so many more people passively when used correctly.

Our kids have never even met her physically, though. Her immune system is too delicate to accept visitors. But even through a 6" screen, it's like she's really here. I can only imagine what it will be like when virtual reality lets them really be together.