Nov 05, 2016 06:33 AM EDT By Audri Taylors, UniversityHerald Reporter

It is no longer a surprise how technology has made a huge change in our lives. In today's world of Internet dating and social media, even long distance relationships can be kept alive and intact. Despite the fact that being in a long distance relationship can be frustrating and difficult to manage, technology has become the key to keeping this type of relationship more bearable and just as successful as the ones in close proximity.

According to a story published by Science Daily in July 2013, "long-distance couples felt more intimate to each other, and this greater intimacy is driven by two tendencies: long-distance couples disclosed themselves more, and they idealized their partners' behaviors."

According to Anna Lindell, a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at MU, research suggests that a relationship can turn out to be better when you use various types of technology to get in touch with someone. "With so many communication options available to millennials, it really is starting to become clear that mobile devices in particular are becoming a necessary tool for keeping our close relationships intact and healthy," Lindell said in an email.

But she also said that because technology is moving too fast, and it is being used for many reasons, it is a bit difficult to isolate how it helps improve the quality of relationships, but it still boils down to how frequent these couples communicate and the conversations that take place.

"There has been research in the past three or four years showing that when people use mobile phones to communicate with others, this leads to higher levels of relationship satisfaction, it leads people to disclose more of their private thoughts and feelings to those people, and it helps keep relationships 'current' even if both parties live many miles apart," Lindell said. "And these findings appear to be valid across many different kinds of relationships."

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