As a senior I know it can be hard sometimes to keep up with the lives of your high school friends once you all go off to college. I’ve certainly had to work at keeping my non-college friendships alive these past few years but having all this technology at my disposal has certainly made it much easier. The most important thing to remember is that regular communication is key: if you have a really close friend you want to stay in touch with then making time in your schedule to talk to them will not be that difficult.
My first tip: (and this may seem slightly outdated) is to set up an email conversation that can just keep going. This was one of my primary ways of staying in touch with my friends after they left for freshman year of college and I left for a gap year-study abroad program in England. The time difference made it hard to talk over facebook and it was way too expensive to text but emails could be sent any time of day and at some point we would see it.
My second tip: set up a time once or twice a week to chat on facebook or skype. Having regular conversations, even if it is only once a week, really helps keep the friendship strong. Once I was back in the US and at college myself, facebook chats were a primary form of communication with friends at other schools. Video chatting can be a little hard with roommates around but try setting up a time when you know you will have the room to yourself. Video chatting has always seemed much more personal to me than facebook chat since you can actually see and hear the other person.
My final tip: make plans to get together when you’re home on breaks. This has always been really important for me in keeping up my friendships with people I don’t see everyday at school. Chatting on facebook or skype can be nice but I think having actual time together in person is the best. Whenever I go home I always at least attempt to make plans with my closest friend: even if she and I just meet for coffee for an hour, it’s always nice catching up in person.
I hope these are some helpful tips, even if they do seem a bit obvious at times, just take them as a reminder that staying in touch with friends is never that hard.