中文 (香港)
With travelling around the world and moving a norm nowadays, it’s easy to find yourself separated with your friends by thousands of miles. Whether you met through travelling, studying abroad or one of you had simply moved away – that shouldn’t be the end of a friendship. Here are 7 tips to keep in touch with your friends, even if you are separated by oceans. Because with the internet, postal services and Facebook, you have no excuse to fall out of touch.
Keep them in your mind
Birthdays, holidays or even just something that reminded you of your friend are all great times to get in touch with your friends. Send them a card or a message – thoughts cost nothing and are good conversation starters.
Say you and your friend met in Amsterdam, send a photo of you posing in front of a random windmill. You don’t have to talk every day, but every now and then send them a message to keep you on their mind too.
Snapchats
A surprisingly great way to keep up to date with your friends’ life, I am a huge fan of Snapchats. It has the benefit of being in real time, and you get to update your life and watch your friends’ through snippets of videos and photos. If your friends care, they’ll respond. I’ve pretty much communicated with my friend from Berlin like this for a few months (I am looking at you Megan).
Schedule Video Call
With the time difference, busy lifestyle and what not, you need to be really determined to coordinate with your friends and take a chuck of time off for a video chat. It might be difficult to do, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Although one time my three-way trans-continent call ended up with audio difficulties where me and the girl in South America couldn’t hear each other, but the girl in the UK can hear us both.
Postcards
Send your friend a postcard if you go on holiday. Tell them your trip so far and how much they’ll love XYZ. It’s a nice gesture and it lets them know that you are thinking of them as well as an update on your life. It also opens up conversation when they receive it, even if it is weeks later.
Be a Facebook stalker
Okay, so I don’t mean it literally. You should naturally see each other’s posts on your own newsfeed, so like and comment on whatever your friend has done recently. If it’s relevant, send them a message. Just don’t be creepy and scroll back to their post in 2007 and like it.
Plan trips
This is like the upgrade version of scheduling video calls. Scheduling a time where everyone can travel is even harder; but the thrill of meeting in person again and travelling will be worth it. I can be a place that’s geographically in the middle to save money and flight time.
Know when to let go
Sometimes relationships don’t work out, and the same can be sad for friendship. It takes two to make it work, and if your friend isn’t in it, there’s no point in pestering them. Try a few times, but don’t waste your effort if it’s clear that they don’t want to carry on with the relationship.
I love sending postcards! The trouble is, I don’t get any in return as I’m always on the move but it’s more fun to give than receive anyway I suppose!
I usually get a respond through snapchat or whatsapp from my friends when they receive my postcard – and that kick the conversation started again 😉 And the same vice versa!
I have lived in a number of countries growing up and when I was a child, I used to write to friends who have moved away. I still have my friends on my Facebook so I can keep track of them that way but its different in the digitalised world. People seem to get lazy in keeping in contact. Anyways, I have a friend in New York whom I send postcards to and we share a dance blog together. Its a nice way to keep in contact. I keep in contact via Facebook mostly these days but also send emails to people.
Dance blog sounds fun – and I agree that facebook does make everyone lazy. I find holidays and birthdays to be great points to get back in contact – just add a line of “how have you been” is a great conversation starter!
Love this guide! And I agree with the last one. Unfortunately I’ve lost touch with some friends after being away travelling for two years but sometimes you’ve just got to accept the fact and move on, sad as it might be!
It is true – I try to keep in contact with a friend from 3 years back, but it didn’t work. It’s a two way stream so they have to be willing to put in the effort, too!