Q&A for How to Encourage Your Friends to Contact You More

Send your friend funny jokes or pictures, ask a question, or start up some kind of conversation. If you talk enough via text and in person, your friend will text you back more often. Don't be afraid to start a text conversation because your friend could feel the same way!

You could call him/her your internet buddy or email pal. You can also continue to call him/her your pen pal.

That can happen often. It's fine to just listen.You can also wait for a break in the conversation and bring up another topic that you think is interesting.

The trick is to just use any social media you can (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Messages, Snapchat, Instagram, Messenger). Also, try to at least see them twice a year, just so that you can be face to face sometimes. But I don't know your situation, so it may be that you can't, but either way face to face is best.

Think of activities this friend enjoys. What kinds of sports, games or movies does he like? Is there a specific place in town he enjoys going to? What kind of food does he enjoy? Whatever it is, use it to get him to spend time with you. Maybe you can invite him to watch a movie he is interested in and eat something he likes. Your friend will want to spend time with you if he knows you guys are doing something he also enjoys doing.

The best time to call a friend would be a couple hours after 12 or 2. That way if he/she is at school, they can call you after.

How is he/she trying to contact you? How do you normally contact each other? And how do you know that the friend is trying to contact you? Use the answers to these questions to figure out the best way. If someone else who is in touch with both of you informed you that your friend wants to contact you, you can ask that person to help you two get in touch. If you have your friend's phone number, email, or address - or if you go to school together or both go to a certain place regularly - then use one of those means to contact them!

In person, simply ask "Did you get my texts?" If they answer no, try saying "Could we text at four tonight?". Or you could ask them if they don't want to text but would rather you called next time.

The first thing I would suggest would be mentioning this to them. It's possible they don't even realize they're doing this. Explain how you feel as though you always have to hold up the weight of conversations and you'd appreciate if it could be something that is equally shared. As for your conversations ending up in awkward silence, this could be because they're not used to having to carry on the conversations themselves without you.

When your friend is at work, that's your friend's primary focus and you'll have to settle for whatever contact your friend is capable of giving. Rather than expecting more contact, consider ways that you can reduce your expectations and find other ways to distract yourself. Expecting someone to be in contact with you at all times can come across as very needy/clingy.

Try learning their timetable, when their busy and when their not. Also try meeting up with them in person and talk to them about this. Then you could both organise a time to talk.