Happily, in this article I learned that I can throw a kiss to my grandson on FaceTime and he can interact with me using the technology.  It works best if the adult on the other end catches the kiss and plants it on the child’s head.   Apparently, researchers confirm that babies can interact with a real time person using a video conferencing tool much differently then they do with a passive video.

infants can also tell the difference between, say, a broadcast of Mister Rogers and a video call with their actual grandfather. The ability to discern between video broadcast and video-based chat from infancy, which researchers have only recently confirmed, could have a profound effect on our understanding of how the human brain develops—and specifically, how technologies can play a role in shaping abstract concepts early on.