<p>My school is about 6 hours from home, and all of my close friends will be 4 to 6 hours away. Of course college is a chance to make new friends, but there are a few people who I really want to stay close to. I'm worried that if I talk to friends from home too much, I'll hold myself back from totally settling in at school. At the same time, I want to stay just as close to a few of my friends as I am now.</p>
<p>Obviously I'll play it by ear once I'm there, but I still don't really have any idea of what the norm is for keeping a close but long-distance friendship. I plan to text and use Skype and Facebook, but I just don't know how frequently I should and it would be nice to go into it having an idea of what the right balance is.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s really a specific limit on how often you should or should not Skype or call or text your friends. It’s totally great that you want to keep in touch with them! But basically, think of it like this: make sure that when you’re talking to your friends at home, you’re not interfering with trying to connect with your new acquaintances. What I mean is that, try to pick a good time to be talking to your friends. Don’t text them while you’re eating lunch with someone, don’t Skype them while you could be out at an event meeting new people, don’t pass up an opportunity to hang out with some hallmates to call your friends. Just talk to your friends and figure out when’s a good time to catch up with each other and not get in the way of going out and meeting new people.</p>
<p>There’s no limit to how much time you can talk to your friends from home. I would basically talk to my friends whenever we were both online and not busy. Sometimes, we’d webcam, sometimes we’d just IM. If I had something specific to tell them, sometimes I’d text. But it was pretty much the same way I’d communicate with friends that I made in college. It’s really not that big of a divide, expect that you can’t go see them in person.</p>
<p>The great thing about friends is that you can go weeks or months without talking to them and you can still be really great friends. Don’t stress about it, and just do what feels natural.</p>
<p>Do what works for you. There is no “right amount” of times you should keep in contact with your friends. Do whatever you used to.</p>