When I came back to the states from Malaysia, I had one option for keeping in touch with my family and friends back there. It was early 1989 and letters were it. Phone calls were unbelievably expensive so letters it was. I wrote letters to the other exchange students in their home countries, I wrote letters to my friends at school, I wrote letters to my host family. And all of these letters were two weeks there and two weeks back (minimum). Mostly I wrote letters. Every once in a very long while I would hear back from someone. It was very hard, and excessively frustrating.
Then along came e-mail! While I still didn't hear from people very often, I did hear more. I even got a couple of e-mails from my host family! Of course, as time passed and I didn't hear from people, I quit writing too. But there was a core of friends that I managed to stay in touch with. It helped that I was able to go back a couple of times while I was at University, and a couple friends came through California so I got to see them too.
Finally, years after I'd given up writing letters to people. Years after I got many e-mails, all of a sudden AFS friends and family started popping up on facebook! What a wonderful beautiful thing! I know people complain about facebook and the internet in general all the time. But I love it. I love that my friends are out there. I send them messages, I write on their walls, they write on mine. I've had a chance to renew old friendships I thought were lost and I just love it.
Next up? Skype. Gotta get a bunch of my family on Skype on a regular basis. ;) Oh, wait, that's me. I'm the one that always forgets to turn it on.... Working on that.
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