Video chat and texting are essential tools in the world of digital dating, especially when you and your partner are apart. However, there’s not much you can do with multicolored heart emojis, one-minute voice memos, and animated GIFs. Here are my favorite ways to keep a long-distance relationship alive:
Share reminder photos
Who doesn’t love sending and receiving cute and sometimes spicy photos? Photos are a great way to stay in touch and share daily activities and accomplishments, even if that’s how good your winged eyeliner looked before girls’ night out.
When my boyfriend and I started our Web 2.0 whirlwind romance, we discovered Locket (available for iPhone and Android). Locket is a widget that displays photos directly on partners’ respective home screens. Not only does the widget encourage us to keep up to date with our activities, but it also lets me remind my sweetie how cute I look in my various outfits and makeups for the week. Locket also archives photos sent back and forth to the widget, so you don’t have to worry about losing a stellar selfie.
A dating app to keep
Most singles these days have gone through this: once you’ve committed to a serious relationship, it’s time to delete dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble. However, other apps may stay on your phone forever. I highly recommend going official. The app encourages healthy relationship habits and routines. Through the app, you can log in, archive memories, and create new ones. My favorite features are the ‘love buttons’, with ‘I need some attention’, ‘Send some love’, ‘Let’s dive in’ and ‘I’m in the mood’ icons that let my little one know friend of my thoughts and needs in real time. On Official, you can also schedule dates; compare intimate desires; create daily check-ins; and save notes, memories and upcoming events. The app is useful and fun, and it can get sensual, which is an absolute must. My partner and I like to use the daily romance questions feature to see who can come up with better answers. In our friendly competition, I reluctantly admit that he beats me by a day or two.
Listen together
Building playlists together is a great way to express your own feelings through the poetry of others (because sometimes only an Ariana Grande song can capture your love) or just vibe whether you’re together or apart. I love using Spotify’s features, such as group sessions or the ability to add collaborators for editing playlists or listening to what my partner is playing. It’s a great way to feel close to your partner while commuting, working out or relaxing at home. Having my other half in my headphones is a fantastic experience, even if it saturates our creations with a little too much experimental indie pop. I’ve found there’s a limit to how much Lana Del Rey I can handle on the way to my 9:30 psychology lectures.
Go to digital appointments
Dates and intimacy box be digital. Booking time for FaceTime or Skype dates while earning and dining (and all that can follow, wink) over the phone is a great way to schedule a date. I use the FaceTime screen sharing tool to listen to music and watch TikToks together while on the phone. Netflix teleparties are also a delight, as you and your partner can watch a movie together and chat about the movie through an easily installable widget extension. Darpinan, in an interview with film therapy expert Kristen Meinzer, discusses how films can help us explore partnerships and release stuck emotions. As an NYU art student living near Washington Square Park, I recently watched the love story of a Greenwich Village-based artist by Kid Cudi entergalactic on Teleparty with my boyfriend. We had a blast showing animated versions of landmarks I live near, cheering on love interests, and fangirling celebrity cameos.
Plan your daily activities together
Planning activities together is a must, even if you’re 3,000 miles away from your loved one. I like to compare schedules to know when my partner is available and find time to go to the gym, eat or work simultaneously. I especially like shopping at the same time. Growing up in the 2010s as a staunch follower of the clothes-carrying era on YouTube, I really appreciate a moment of unboxing and fashion show/modeling after the video chat release.
I love my long distance relationship. It taught me to trust, set healthy boundaries, communicate effectively, and be independent. Meeting my bicoastal bae digitally has been an unexpected gift, and I wouldn’t trade the experiences we share, whether together or across the country, for anything. Love in the 21st century is more accessible than ever.
#technology #fuel #longdistance #love