Preserve your memories
Living overseas means some family members are missing out on family experiences.
Personally, capturing the everyday life in photos and little videos is also a way of sharing the children's life with family and close friends overseas in Europe. For that reason I am grateful and fully behind social media apps like WhatsApp and Skype, Facebook for that sake mobile phone cameras. I love it.
Hard to imagine that there were times before the Internet, where staying in touch meant only sending letters and a few printed photos a couple of months. I mean we love it and do, usually once a year. Nowadays, grandparents in Berlin are reading stories or practicing maths with the children in New Zealand via Skype. Or the children leave a voice message or send a photo on my WhatsApp.
Skype chat with Santa who already made it to Europe after delivering presents last night in New Zealand.
There are many free options to share memories online, such as Facebook, Dropbox, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Photos and so on. When choosing a shared platform one should consider accessibility for all family members and friends involved, keeping their age and tech knowledge in mind. Do people need to create an account? How easy is it to view the photos or upload and download them?
Google Photos. User-friendliness outweighs technical schnickschnack.
Personally, I love using WhatsApp for sending photos and videos with personal notes to certain family members and friends. Oftentimes, a quick voice message is a nice way of saying hello or talk about the day.
After being on a road trip or hike in the mountains or other adventure, I usually create a Google Photo album for family and friends to view. My phone automatically stores my phone photos in Google Photos, which has its advantages. Family members with no gmail address need to be sent a link for their access, which takes 3 clicks more to do. Otherwise you simply add contacts from your gmail contact list.
There are many different platforms to make it easy for people to share memories. It takes some to find out which one with what features serves you best. When I came to New Zealand in 2009 I started a travel blog for my friends and family back in Europe and after the children were born I used to send regularly letters with CDs with photos to the grandparents in Berlin. Now it's WhatsApp, Google Photos, Skype and sometimes Facebook.