Maintaining Long-Distance Childhood Friendships Using Digital Technology

Social distancing has become a new social norm, and with it, digital technology takes a more prominent role in socialization as people try to stay home. People are connecting and interacting with each other using different digital technologies and social media platforms. This study investigates how digital technologies help to maintain long-distance childhood friendships. Specific research questions included determining the most popular forms of digital technology used to maintain long-distance childhood friendships of the male population of Southeast Asia, and how significant are these digitally-based long-distance childhood friendships in people who keep in touch with childhood friends, and do people use any other forms of contact to keep in touch with childhood friends other than digital? An online survey was used, with some open-ended follow-up questions sent by e-mail. Moreover, friends are living in different time zones. The Survey found that all friends using digital technology with an Internet connection. The results indicated that people are busy with family and work, and it can be hard to find the time to keep in touch with childhood friends. However, even people are busy and in different time zones, they still maintain friendships using different forms of digital communication. On the other hand, it is very hard to use other forms of contact to keep in touch with childhood friends other than digital. The study findings may contribute to better design of social media and other platforms which are used to support long-distance relationships of adults with their friends from childhood.