voices around the world

I often reflect upon the ways the world has changed since the time our grandparents were young. Thanks to cheap telephone and internet connections, people are now talking across the globe in real time all the time. A lot of people have to do it for a living: think BPO and call-centre operatives. But it's not an unmixed blessing. If you know about international time differences, and how people's body clocks and schedules differ, I mean. So when I am chatting with someone across continents and oceans, I must factor in the reality that I might be sleepy after a hard day, whereas s/he might still be groggy, having just woken up with a hangover, or wisps of a bad dream still not wholly cleared away, or just facing the prospect of another long working day ahead. Besides, one might be in a depressed mood while the other is feeling all chirpy and garrulous. Makes for a difficult situation, really, with chances of unfortunate misunderstandings galore... I leave it to your imagination, unless you have been a victim already, in which case you know, and you have my sympathies. I at least can afford to talk only to people who, I can more or less trust, like me and seriously want to talk to me. God's mercy on those who have to do it with uninterested and often irate strangers, day in and day out, to earn their living...