How do you maintain relationships with long-distance friends?

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  1. brenda12lynette profile image76
    brenda12lynetteposted 8 years ago

    How do you maintain relationships with long-distance friends?

    While technology has made keeping in touch with those friends from college a lot easier, it's still difficult to keep in touch. How do you maintain ties with friends who live far away?

  2. Cristale profile image90
    Cristaleposted 8 years ago

    The telephone, as often as possible to text and call, to start with. There is also FaceBook, which every one loves. Skype is another popular way to communicate, through webam/video. It's awesome what techonology can do these days. Google + is awesome too.

  3. KathyH profile image90
    KathyHposted 8 years ago

    We've kept in contact for years with old fashioned snail mail... but now also through email. smile Sometimes on the phone, but I tend to live in places where there is a significant time difference, so mail and email work best for us. wink

  4. blessed365 profile image70
    blessed365posted 8 years ago

    I stay in contact via phone, and text. Shooting them an email is also something that I will do but not very often.

  5. Cardia profile image92
    Cardiaposted 8 years ago

    I'd say Facebook is how I keep track of my friends overseas (such as my old penpals). We also use Twitter,email and Skype, so I guess it's mainly technology that keeps us together. I still like sending birthday and Christmas cards via snail mail!

    1. Cristale profile image90
      Cristaleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      That is very traditional and awesome. I used to do Christmas cards with photos in them via snail mail.

  6. theseus profile image80
    theseusposted 8 years ago

    I have an Italian friend whom I have been friends for 18 years now. I haven't had the chance to meet her in person in that span of time. How do we keep in touch? Aside from e-mails, Facebook and Skype,we still do the traditional mail style. Despite our hectic schedule, we make sure that we have the time to write to each other such that every month I receive a letter from her and she from me.

  7. ChitrangadaSharan profile image88
    ChitrangadaSharanposted 8 years ago

    Thanks to technology. But you have to agree, it is a virtual world. Exchanging messages on the web is interesting, but where is the joy of spending time together.
    I still remember, how we used to enjoy as a gang at tea and coffee shops in the university campus. Waiting for some dear one's letter, looking every now and then in the letter box was so much fun and exciting. But nowadays, even friends living in the same city find little time to visit each other. Life has become too mechanical. People sitting in the same room are busy with their own electronic devices hardly talking to each other.

  8. LilaDaley profile image60
    LilaDaleyposted 8 years ago

    My two best friends moved away and now the three of us live in different places, Toronto, OKC and Kentucky.  We text and play games on FB.  At times we chat on the phone but with them being guys they aren't too much into talking on the phone.  I'm not a big FB user but it's free and fun to interact that way.

    I moved from California to Toronto 4 years ago away from my family and I also use FB to share pics of my family.

  9. tjdavis profile image60
    tjdavisposted 8 years ago

    Facebook of course. Skype is wonderful if you don't mind being on camera lol. They have a cool app out for the android phone, not sure if it's on the Iphone, but it's called WhatsApp. It acts just like text but you can also attach photos, video and audio to each text and the best part is it's free to anyone around the world who has it downloaded on their phone. I use it to keep in touch with my friends in the Netherlands.

  10. executivecatering profile image69
    executivecateringposted 8 years ago

    Facebook is good for day to day chit chat but skype is by far the best on-line service, My wife and I dated over skype for a year because she lived in the USA and I am from England and without skype it would have been so difficult not seeing each other.
    It really makes you appreciate each other more as well.

  11. Tonyx35 profile image61
    Tonyx35posted 8 years ago

    Technology has really helped me here.

    E-mail allows me to send messages to people here in the US and to people around the world without having to wait that long for a response.

    Skype allows me to see and hear these long-distance friends of me for free, when communicating Computer to Computer.

    A Site like Facebook allows to see what they are up to, through status posts, online photo album, and real-time chat.

    If you need to send someone something, There's always parcel delivery services such as USPS, FedEX, DHL, UPS, and so on.

  12. JulianaDragoness profile image72
    JulianaDragonessposted 8 years ago

    I've found that texting or email is great to keep in touch with distant friends.  My best friend moved to Florida on me but we text each other daily and it's like we are still beside each other.

  13. jentaylorsc profile image60
    jentaylorscposted 8 years ago

    My best friend and I live in different states now, but we still stay in touch through phone, email, text messaging, and HeyTell (an iphone app). We also see each other when she comes to town, and we understand there may be times when we don't talk for a week or two and that's okay. I do wish she lived nearby though.

  14. Time2Spare profile image60
    Time2Spareposted 8 years ago

    Unfortunately, i don't know how but somehow my friends got categorized. So there are the very close ones that i phone, some whom i mail, few with whom i chat and the rest by my networking in facebook.

  15. iefox5 profile image57
    iefox5posted 8 years ago

    Call each other, chat online, e-mail each other and visit each other sometimes.

  16. Karina Louise profile image60
    Karina Louiseposted 8 years ago

    I have been fortunate enough to travel quite frequently and have collected so many lovely friends all over the world along the way. And while Facebook can be a great way to key an idea going about what is happening in peoples everyday life and Skype is a great way to see them in person as often as you can, I feel that the best/strongest friendships are ones that don't require a ton of upkeep. There are only so many hours in the day and you can only be truly close to/in touch with so many people in your life at one time. What is most important is the quality of the interaction when you do speak. If you spend the first 20 minutes making each other feel bad for how long its been since you last communicated, you are wasting valuable time. The best friends are those that you can just pick up where you left off with/and or share anything and everything new that is going on with you now. Good luck!

  17. lbramos profile image66
    lbramosposted 8 years ago

    I think that technology has helped a lot but it doesn't perform miracles...

    We now have email, facebook, skype, facetime, and a few more options to keep in touch and it makes everything easier, but in my opinion we still need the "face to face" time...

    So, as much as I use those technologies to keep in touch with family and friends that are away, I try to visit (or be visited) by them at least one or twice per year. I try to find the best balance possible, because in my experience, if you use only email or skype, there's a lot of things you'll loose, and the relantionship will be affected... As I say on one of my hubs, you have to work hard on your relationships to take the most out of them!

  18. brenda12lynette profile image76
    brenda12lynetteposted 8 years ago

    Thanks for all the great answers everyone!! I use Facebook and texting mostly, but I have yet to utilize Skype. I think it might be time to embrace some new technology.

  19. Amy Hyun profile image73
    Amy Hyunposted 8 years ago

    I keep in contact with them through texting and e-mails. smile

  20. Anishpat profile image80
    Anishpatposted 8 years ago

    I find it really difficult, ironically we now have more ways to stay connected: facebook, whatapp, skype etc. However, I have come to realize that if you don't meet up with your friends every once in a while (even if it is once ever two to three years), you will eventually lose touch.

  21. Bonitaanna profile image70
    Bonitaannaposted 8 years ago

    Try doing it with your husband!  For the last 12 years we have been appart more than together.  I see him about 3 months out of the year.  It will be two years in October we have been together only 3 weeks.  I'm not saying it is easy.  I miss him so much.  He calls me about 13 times a day.  My three sons who live on the other side of the country I am lucky to hear from them at all.  My daughter-in-laws don't call me.  If I call any of them, they are not interested in what I have to say, except my oldest son.  I have two grown up grandsons. I get about 1-2 calls a year.  My sister will not have a relationship with me and has not for the past 51 years, 2 brothers do not like me and if I call no one wants to hear from me.  My youngest brother who is a quadruplegic, likes to talk to me, and we have a good relationship and always have.  I send him clothes and sometimes money if I have extra.  My parents are both dead.  They disowned me most of my life, infact they were not talking to me when they passed away.  When I heard my mother was sick I took a month off work to sit in the hospital with her.  The whole time she would not carry on a conversation with me. Dad died before her.
    It is very sad to know there are so many ways to keep in touch and that my family is not interested in taking advantage of it all. My sons refuse to email me. In the 12 years that I have had a computer and them too, they have not once emailed me. They told me they did not want too. I usually took one trip to the town they live in every year. I don't do it anymore. One son told me to make an appointment with him before I come to his house to see my grandchildren, otherwise I am not welcome there.

  22. Lynne_Eliz profile image64
    Lynne_Elizposted 7 years ago

    Facebook - a godsend for keeping in contact with long-distance friendships.


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