Advice to stay in touch with your family during the pandemic

Staying in touch with your loved ones during the pandemic is an important aspect that will not only help your own mental health but also theirs. With many people being told to stay at home, face-to-face communication is currently paused meaning other ways to stay in touch are more important than ever. Luckily, from video calls to countless messenger apps, or letters and emails, there are a whole plethora of avenues that you can go down to stay in touch with your loved ones. Below are several ways to stay in touch with your family during the pandemic.

Communicate Through Email
Email is an efficient and effective way to stay in touch with your loved ones during a pandemic. Most people have email addresses, and if they don’t it’s easy to create one using one of the major suppliers. When sending an email, you can create an email chain and send it to multiple people at the same time. A positive thing about email is that you don’t have to reply instantly. You can let it sit in your inbox and reply when you are ready and have thought of something interesting to send back. There is also not a character limit meaning it is easier to send something longer than through a text and it’s free to have.

Video Calls
Throughout the pandemic, video calls are becoming one of the most popular ways to communicate with one another. There are many providers out there that make it easy to do so, such as Zoom, Skype, or Facebook. You’ll also find that most mobile devices or laptops have cameras built into them meaning you don’t need to purchase anything additional so have a video call. Video calls typically go on for longer as you can actually see each other, you can have multiple people on the call at the same time, and if you are feeling creative you can always play some games over the camera, like a family quiz or an online escape room.

Messenger
Online messenger platforms like Facebook messenger or Whatsapp are perfect for sharing images, staying in touch with your loved ones a quick message, or having a longer conversation. With messenger, they are free to use and the messages you send are instantly delivered. As with other ways of communicating, you can create a group and message multiple people at the same time. The main benefit of the messenger is that it’s quick and easy to use, if you are out and about and have a sudden thought you want to share to show you are thinking of someone, you can quickly send it to them within a minute. Messenger apps can be used on your laptop or mobile device.

Letters
Letters aren’t as popular as they used to be but are still a nice way to communicate with your loved ones. Letters tend to be unexpected, giving your friends or family members a nice delivery when they are least expecting it. They show that you have gone the extra mile to get in touch with them and allow you to be more personal than through an email or messenger post. Writing a letter is also great fun when you think about it, when was the last time you sat down with an a4 piece of paper and wrote a nice message on it? With technology taking over, probably a long time ago, if ever.

Blog Posts
Have you thought about starting up a blog? A blog is a great way to let multiple people know how you are doing, no matter who they are. With a blog, you can be personal and write about your day-to-day life, or you write about a subject matter that you are interested in. People can read your posts whenever they have some time free without having to get in direct contact with you. Plus, if your blog is really interesting you may find people who you don’t know coming to your site to read what you write. This could lead to you writing more meaningful posts that can affect others in a positive way as well.

Overall, there are many ways in which we can communicate through this dreaded pandemic. Choose the ones that work best for you and the people you want to stay in touch with. An elderly person may be better over a letter or email than a zoom call or your blog posts. Whereas your parents may prefer video calls or to read your blog posts.

How do you stay in touch with your loved ones? How often do you message each other? Is there something that we are missing? Let us know in the comment box below, we would love to hear from you.