Connect Via Virtual Spaces and Entertainment

In family theme movies, there’s always a gathering of some sort. There’s a time and a place set for as much of the family as possible to come together and enjoy each other’s company in a world where things are often incredibly busy and stressful. While this might be easy and practical in the movies, it’s not always as easy in real life.

Getting the family together for a game night or a dinner might be a simple thing if you all still live in the same town, but when your family is strewn across a country or, even more challengingly, across the world, it’s not such a simple task. Luckily for us, we live in an age where the world has been made smaller than it once was by one thing: technology.

Whether the family can be physically present or not is no longer a mitigating factor in hosting a gettogether of some kind because we have access to apps like Zoom and Skype. Family bingo nights, dinners from halfway across the world, watching movies together, or playing games; all of these things are now possible thanks to online technology.

Modern families don’t necessarily always have the ability to be in the same room together, but that doesn’t mean that connecting on any level is out of the question. Here’s how modern technology can keep families close through connection and entertainment.

Watch A Movie

There are a lot of streaming services that are now available in most places in the world for a reasonable cost if you miss the family movie nights that you all had together- those ones where you and your cousins made a Christmas bed on the floor and all the aunts and uncles and parents perched on the couches, handing around bowls of popcorn — never fear! Platforms like Netflix can offer you movie nights from wherever you are.

If you all have the same film open on your Netflix and have Skype or Zoom open as well, you can watch the same film at the same time and have that peanut gallery commentary flowing just as if you were all together. You can take turns choosing the movie or let fate decide and pull a name out of a hat.

Have Family Dinners

In much the same way as you could put a movie on and watch it together, you can organize a sit-down family dinner as well. Though it would be senseless to make an entire family meal for one or even for two people, you can make the same dish from the same recipe so that you’re all tasting the same thing. You could even extend the fun by opening up Zoom or Skype early and cooking it together!

Every family has a few of those recipes that everyone loves: Grandma’s soup, your Aunt’s famous spaghetti, or that weird Tater Tot casserole you had every year at Thanksgiving. Once the meal is ready, set your table and sit down with your computer or phone to enjoy a delicious meal with your family via chat.

Have Family Game Night

If your family is the competitive type who longs for those winter evenings by the fire or summer evenings in the pool playing some fun games together, then we’ve got the perfect solution! Jump onto your favorite chat app and draw game options out of a hat to choose a game.

Let’s say you choose bingo. You’ll settle on an online bingo site and then open your chat apps together to get all the entertainment and hilarity you can out of the game. It’ll be fun to see who can pull a win out of the bag and find out who the sore losers still are after all those years of playing games together.

Visit Your Favorite Place

If you can’t all decide on one activity, then why not each do what you like doing best and take the family along with you? Whether it’s a day at the beach, going horse riding, taking a little shopping trip, or relaxing on the couch, take the family with you via chat on your phone or computer.

There are a few things we suggest you stay clear of though: no family phone calls at the movies or at any kind of live show! Not only is it possibly distracting to the other attendees, but it’s also potentially sharing a paid event for free. 

Stick to things that make sense to enjoy with other people: things that could offer some nice scenery or a new perspective that family members may never have seen before. Running a race might be entertaining for you but boring and hard to watch for them! Remember that you need to be able to enjoy your activity as well as be able to watch theirs and enjoy it with them.

Wrap Up

Though it can be saddening not to always be able to see our families in person, there are ways to get around it and keep them in our orbit, thanks to technology!

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