Friends 4 Life

With more possibilities for communicating, face-to-face contact with friends who live too far away is decreasing. A 2009 study from the Communication Quarterly found that ninety percent of individuals report having at least one close long distance friend, and 82% of college students report e-mailing a long distance friend at least once per week, on average.

This is good news for all the friends out there! Despite the challenge of being far away from each other, young adults that attend college make a commitment to "keep in touch" with their high school friends as they move on to college. The study also made three interesting findings:

1. 81% of long distance friends in the study reported that their levels of commitment were currently rising, instead of falling. Isn't that good news?

2. Long distance friendships were of longer duration that geographically close ones.

3. Both long distance and geographically close friendships showed high, currently rising levels of commitment.

4. The study also provided evidence that proximity and frequent face-to-face  are not requirements for close interpersonal relationships, as well as friendships. So don't worry about the distance because your friendship and/or romantic relationship does not require proximity for it to succeed in the future! Isn't that great?