A long-distance friend can’t see your face, so say the feeling out loud. “I miss you” has to do a hug’s job.

Without a face in the room, all your usual signals go missing. Up close a look or sitting nearby carries most of the message, and across a thousand miles the words have to do that work alone. So the plain sentence you would normally never say out loud becomes the only way the feeling gets there.

Say the blunt version to somebody far away this week, with no joke bolted onto the end. Three words will do it. It feels oversized while you are typing and lands exactly right at the other end.