Keeping Up With Your Besties, No Matter Where They Are in the World

18 May Keeping Up With Your Besties, No Matter Where They Are in the World

International travel has trended upwards consistently for decades with people from all corners of the globe occasionally moving vast distances for a plethora of reasons. From work, to backpacking, more people are on the move than ever before.

In 2019, for example, an estimated 1.46 billion people travelled – that’s 20% of the world population. Access to low-cost airlines, and growing incentives for overseas work have combined to ensure that humanity in the 2020s is on the move.

And while people cross the earth in search of new opportunities, there’s no escaping the very real fact that in doing so we stand to leave our loved ones and some of our best friends back home. This can be hard, especially when we’re moving or travelling somewhere without our usual social support structure. Fortunately, modern technology can help assuage some of that homesickness.

Video conferencing software – from Apple’s FaceTime, to Zoom and Skype – connect millions around the world every day. While catching up on a call may not be a perfect antidote to being with your loved ones in person, being able to see and hang out with them often trumps a letter or voice call alone.

What’s more, there’s more ways than ever before for you to spend quality time with your besties, no matter where they’re based. If you’re looking to enjoy some time remote R&R with your nearest and dearest, try out these suggestions below.

Games Night

One of the most popular options for online meets is a games night. This offers an active and collaborative experience, and can be amazing fun. There’s all sorts of games you can play, depending on who you’re playing with, the size of the group, and your personal preferences.

For example, many people like to play online variants of classic table games such as poker as these are often a great social lubricant in real world contexts. Leading platforms such as PokerStars offer flexible and feature-rich software that can easily facilitate setting up a round of games with your friends.

For those that prefer a more casual gameplay experience, popular titles like Among Us make great party games thanks to its last-man-standing elimination game-mode that rewards deception and cunning.

Watch Parties

The maxim ‘Netflix and chill’’ has entered common parlance for good reason – after all, when friends get together in a relaxed setting few things beat watching movies or bingeing the latest TV hits.

Over-the-top media platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Now TV and Amazon Prime Video typically release flagship content simultaneously across all areas of the globe, which makes following a show with friends from other parts of the world easy and fun to achieve.

Some services, such as Disney+, even offer an integrated watch-party feature that syncs multiple remote accounts together, meaning you can rest assured you’re watching the same show perfectly in time. This also ensures that if someone needs a loo break, the show will pause for both parties.

Cook-a-long

For many people, the kitchen is the heart and hub of the home, and the place where they naturally end up doing the majority of their entertaining, and cooking can be a great way to spend some quality time together.

As we all need to eat, scheduling such catch-ups can be a great option for busy people who would otherwise struggle to carve out some time in their calendar to connect. This can even prove viable if you’re in wildly different parts of the world – for example, someone in the UK could prepare dinner at the same moment that a friend based in Australia may be getting ready to eat breakfast.

You could even consider cooking the same meals and following the same recipe. While each dish will be slightly different, you will be able to share the experience of preparing, cooking and – crucially – eating the dish together, even if you’re in different time zones.