How to Stay Connected Virtually with Your Friends and Family

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Here are eight great ideas for how to stay connected virtually with your friends and family and keep your relationships strong and healthy.

How to Stay Connected Virtually

how to stay connected virtually with friends and family: girl with a laptop and a dog

1. Host a Digital Dinner Party

There’s no need to eat alone when you can get your friends and family to join you online. Depending on your mood, you can keep things easy and casual by eating pizza and takeout together. Or, you can really go fancy, set a theme, and all cook a recipe together.

Make sure you have some drinks for your digital toasts. And pitch some games or activities for your party. Once you’ve finished food, you can continue spending quality time together.

2. Host a Virtual Movie Night

One of the simplest ways to stay connected digitally is to watch the same movie or show together.

You can use Netflix Party to watch shows with strangers or choose a movie and set a time for your party. Join zoom together, and all hit play at the same time.

Simple, easy to set up, and a great way to feel connected doing something you’d normally do on your own.

3. Send a Digital Care Package

When you can’t send physical hand-wrapped gifts, why not send your friends and loved ones a digital care package? There are so many digital services you can order and send to someone via email. Here are a few ideas:

  • E-books, Kindle Unlimited Subscription, or Audible Subscription.
  • Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime.
  • Spotify or other music subscriptions.
  • Gift cards to restaurants, spas, and other such services they can use later on (plus, you help local smaller businesses during a difficult time).
  • Gift cards to Amazon or their favorite online shops.
  • Digital art gifts.

4. Play Online Games

If you play video games and own a games console, this one will come as no surprise to you. If some you’d love to play with doesn’t own the same game, start a Share Play Session on PS4.

However, online games don’t just have to be on the Wii, PS4, or Xbox. Many classic board games, like Monopoly, you can play virtually with friends. The popular game Heads Up! can be played on the video-chat app Houseparty. And games like charades are perfect to play over Zoom.

5. Attend Virtual Concerts Together

If you’re sorely missing listening to live music, why not experience a virtual concert with your friends? Lots of musicians, from famous artists, underground acts, and DJs, are doing live performances and sets from home and streaming them online.

Don’t be afraid to let your hair loose. Place your laptop on a desk or bed, and wear some loose, comfortable clothes. When the music gets going, dance along with your friends. Dancing is a great way to relieve stress and tension and make you feel happy.

6. Go on a Virtual Trip Together

Thanks to YouTube and other streaming services, you can enjoy wonderful places from the comfort of your home. National parks, art exhibitions, and even wonders like the Great Wall of China all have virtual tours online.

Choose a place with your friends or family you’ve always wanted to go to. Sit back with a drink, relax, and press play together. Let the tour stimulate your senses as you explore some of the world’s most amazing places. Many virtual tours have a 360-degree feature, so you can decide where to go and what to look at.

7. Start a Book Club Online

Whether you’re a bookworm or new to reading novels, online book clubs add an amazing social side to reading. There are lots of book clubs you can join online. Facebook is a great place to look.

Starting your own is also very simple. Ask your family and friends to join. Schedule weekly meetings, and at each, choose a book to read. During club meetings, you can all discuss the book you’re reading. Pour yourself a drink and relax in the company of great people and interesting conversation.

8. Join a Virtual Workout Class

Lots of gyms and personal trainers are taking their workout classes. You can either do them live, where you watch the trainer in real-time. Or, you can watch a wide range of classes on YouTube from top fitness influencers and personal trainers.

Live stream workouts have a greater social element to them, as you can talk to the trainer in real-time. Put some workout clothes on, make some space in your bedroom, and work out to the same stream with your friends.


The internet has opened up so many ways for us to stay connected with friends and loved ones. These are just eight of many ways you can have a great time with people without physically being in the same room together.

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How to Stay Connected Virtually with Your Friends and Family