Talking about technologies, the ease and especially the abundance of them is both a blessing and a curse. For long-distance relationships the general advice is to prefer video calls over texting because written words can bring a considerable amount of confusion in the long term. Otherwise, the choice is a matter of agreement between the communicating parties. Some prefer Instagram, others Facebook. Just make sure that when trying to connect with someone, you are not actually checking on your partner. You simply can’t know every single step your partner is taking during the day, so don’t act as a snooping detective.
And what about grandma Agnes who has trouble with all these “intuitive interfaces”? As far as the computers are concerned, you can easily help her with remote desktop apps such as TeamViewer.