Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming the primary way of keeping in touch with numerous friends over great distances. You can use a social networking platform to check in on your friends, and they can see what you've been up to as well. Some platforms have private and instant-messaging capacity so you can carry on conversations with your friends.

Skype and Google Chat are two free ways that you can video chat with friends online regardless of their location or yours. All you need is a computer with a Web cam and an Internet connection. While you are chatting, a box with your friend's face appears on your screen. Video chatting with friends is the next best thing to conversing with them in your living room.

If you have many friends with whom to keep in touch, consider creating an email list and sending a monthly or quarterly overview of your life to everyone at once. This is like a regular newsletter sent out by your favorite organization, but about yourself. Include tidbits about what you've been up to recently, what you're working on and new photos. This way you don't have to write a separate email to each friend, but each can respond to you individually.

Remember how exciting it was to get a handwritten letter from your foreign pen pal when you were young? Remember the simple pleasure of talking to your best friend for hours on your family's only phone? Many people believe that there's nothing like a handwritten letter or an old-fashioned phone call. If this sounds like you, devote one night per week to writing to a friend or giving someone special a call to see how they are.