This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Ruth Tam.

Long distance relationships are generally not anyone's first choice when it comes to dating,

marriage, or some other form of partnership. But these days, it's increasingly common to find

yourself in a long distance relationship. Whether it's because of work or school or a forced

separation involving immigration, incarceration, or even a global pandemic. Oftentimes when you think

about a long distance relationship and just nuckling through or just kind of pushing through all

of the barriers and everything, you don't want to look at any relationship that way. If your

relationship was not long distance and it was very local and in person, would you say,

oh yeah, I'm just nuckling through. That's Kihonda Jackson, a licensed marriage and family

therapist based in Los Angeles who says that even though you're a part, you should still be growing.

You should be growing as an individual in your relationship but also collectively and if you're

finding yourself not doing that, you need to reevaluate. So in this episode, how to make the most of

long distance relationships and not just muddle through it? Because today's technology can help bridge

the space between you and your loved ones, but it can't do the hard work of maintaining a relationship for you.

I think that these days, a lot of people think that it's way easier to be in a long distance

relationship now because there are so many tech tools that all of our fingertips, there's

texting and social media and video chatting. Do you think all of these tools that all of our

disposal, does that actually help or does the possibility of constant communication mask some of

our common relationship problems? I think a long distance relationships are difficult, but I do

think that technology and all of the different apps and social media and the things that are

available to us make it easier to have healthy relationships long distance. So I just think that

people should keep that in mind and don't be a one trick pony. Use different modes to communicate

...