Using Inexpensive and Free Technologies to Stay Connected

My husband and I live 11 hours away from the cities we grew up in. Usually, we are still able to travel to visit our families over Thanksgiving and Christmas. As a married couple, we alternate visiting one side of the family over Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas each year. It's great to spend time with one side of the family, but that usually means we go without seeing the other side.

One wonderful thing about the abundance of technology products available these days is the ability to stay connected with family members who may be far away. Whether you just live a few states away like us or you have family members who are serving our country overseas, it's important to let people know you are thinking about them.

The following technology products and software programs can help you share your holidays and every day with your loved ones when they're far away. Of course, there are many more options than those I have listed, but if I tried to list them all, this article would be 100 pages.

Email

Email is just one form of technology that can seem kind of impersonal...talking to a computer instead of face to face with a person. But, in our fast paced society, sometimes email is the only way to reach out to people. It is easy to set up a free email account through Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo!.

Facebook/MySpace/Yuwie

Facebook makes it easy to tell people a little about yourself, upload photos, and communicate online with friends, family members, teachers, and colleagues. You can go very basic and just set up a simple profile, or you can download all kinds of applications to send happy hour drinks, throw snowballs, add pieces of flair, etc.

MySpace is another popular social networking site. Again, you can set up a simple page or go all out by manipulating your CSS code or using templates that other people have created.

Yuwie is similar as a social networking site, but you can actually make a small amount of money from it, too. I joined it at one point and found it to be overly excruciating because most people use it as a way to plug their work at home and pyramid schemes.

Blog/Website

If you like to write about what you're doing and what's happening in your life, you may enjoy writing a blog or creating a website. With free blog sites like Blogger and WordPress, it's easy to access a variety of design templates and help tools. If you want to go more high tech and high maintenance, you can look into creating and maintaining a website. There are many web hosting services that are relatively cheap, like GoDaddy

Twitter

Twitter makes it easy to convey your status and update all of your social networking sites at once. You can update everyone on what you're doing as much or as little as you feel like. You can pay attention to other people's status updates as well, whether you want to be hyper connected or just check in once in awhile.

Kodak Gallery/Walgreen's

Uploading photos for free is easy with sites like the Kodak Gallery and Walgreen's. With both sites, you can upload your photos for free and you can order prints to be sent to your home or picked up in store (for Walgreen's).

Webcam

Webcams are a relatively cheap form of technology that you can plug in to the computer and video record what you're up to. Once you have a webcam, you'll also need some software to connect it. Many software programs are open source and free. If you set up a webcam, make sure you know how to use it effectively and securely.

YouTube

If you're feeling adventurous, you can post your videos to YouTube. If your dog does something funny or your child says his or her first word, YouTube can be a fun way to share it with multiple family members and friends. Just upload the video and share the link. Who knows? You could end up having the most popular video of the year. If you want your videos to stay relatively private, YouTube is obviously not the right choice!

Instant Messaging

There are many instant messaging programs you can access for free online, including AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, and Skype. Instant messaging is easy if you know how to type, it is a very quick form of communication, and it can be done any time day or night.

Skype

With Skype, you can make calls and chat through instant messaging, all with a FREE download. We use it at my office to communicate with people within our own office and across our international offices. You can make free PC to PC phone calls, chat with the instant messenger, and even make video calls.

Text/Picture Messaging

If you have a cheap monthly text and/or picture messaging program on your cell phone, consider sending some quick, fun, and thoughtful text messages to your loved ones. My sister and I have started texting a lot. It's fun to just unexpectedly get a text messaging from your awesome big sis! Recently, we were texting about our plans for Christmas presents. Text messaging is also convenient because the person you send the message to doesn't have to be immediately available. The message will get to the person and they can return a message when they get the chance.