Before she goes to sleep, Sheena Yap often relaxes by watching TV sitcoms with her boyfriend. She looks into her boyfriend’s eyes, says good night and gives him a kiss.

She then closes the video-chat session and shuts off her laptop computer.

Yap, 21, an international student from Singapore, is a junior at NYU. Her boyfriend, also from Singapore, is studying in Shanghai, China. They maintain their long-distance romance through video chatting via built-in cameras on their computers. It had only been ten days into their romance in summer of 2007 when Yap had to leave for freshman year at NYU. Over two years later, they are still video chatting and still dating.

“It makes you feel like you’re there with the person, in a way,” she says. “At least with video chat, we ‘see’ each other everyday.

Video chat has become an increasingly popular way for college students to keep in touch with all loved ones, whether friends, lovers or relatives, especially while separated by physical distance. Not every college student is eager to jump in front of a camera just yet. Instant Messages, e-mails and phone calls are still most popular among the Gen Y community. Yet for tech-savvy college students who want to maintain relationships over distance but care about saving money too, video chatting is a simple solution.

Even Kevin Jonas uses video chat.

“This comes as a result of the prevailing technology that allows video chatting to be more than a fad,” says Tom Ricardo, an IT consultant for On Site in 60, a computer consulting company in New York City. Several years ago, video chatting was difficult and expensive. Since then, Internet connections have significantly increased in speed, video equipment has become quite cheap, and most computers now come with installed cameras.  “It is a utilization of technology that wasn’t available years ago.”

Some use video chatting to take long-term relationships to the ultimate level.  Jessi* (not her real name) is a junior at NYU with a boyfriend who goes to college in the Midwest. She and her boyfriend maintain an essence of a sex life when they aren’t physically together. “I put on a little show for him,” she says. It’s like sexting – sending sexual photos over cellphones – except in live video rather than still form. Together on video, she and her boyfriend undress and masturbate together.  “It doesn’t substitute for sex,” she says, “but it’s related. There’s just something about seeing someone live in front of you.”

Despite the benefits of video chat technology, some young people are not necessarily interested in communicating via cameras. Natalie Bezgin, 21, says that she prefers real life, face-to-face interactions or the telephone to any online communication, let alone video chat. “It freaks me out that people have cameras in their homes, and even bedrooms,” she says. The phone is preferable, she says, because there is a freedom and privacy that can be retained. “You can go shopping, lie in bed, walk around naked, organize your desk, all without the person on the other end having to know about any of it.”

Bezgin is not alone in being wary of video chatting, which perhaps accounts for why it has not grown to as great a popularity as might be expected. Video chatting is just beginning its growth, even in Gen Y, says Tim Riley, marketing strategy consultant for his own company called “Internet Enthusiasts.” Riley believes that the primary reason against video chatting seems to be that it simply demands too much from a participant. “It’s much easier to email, IM, write a message on Facebook, call a person, etc. than to set up a video chat.

That’s one of the reasons that Patrina Caruana, 20, doesn’t often engage in video chat. Rather than wanting to simply see her boyfriend on the computer, Caruana would rather talk to him over the phone during pre-bedtime rituals.  “I can close my eyes and talk to him while I’m falling asleep,” she says. “It’s more like he’s here with me, as opposed to simply seeing him in his room.”

Even for those who generally enjoy video chatting, it can sometimes be more of a negative experience. While video chatting brings a sense of intimacy and emotion that can only be evoked by seeing a loved one’s face, it is also a wonderfully orchestrated illusion of proximity. Brianne Sperber, 20, used video chatting regularly when she was studying at NYU’s main campus in New York before going to Paris for a semester. The first time Sperber video chatted with her father while in Paris, the tears flowing down her face muffled the entire conversation.

It’s gotten easier, she says, but she still tends to avoid video chatting so as to avoid homesickness. “I find video chatting heartbreaking,” she says. “While in Paris, I try not to use it because I know that it will be forever before I see these people again.”