I'm exploring all the different digital avenues which may get affected in their lives on the new planet.
For e.g. timezones, instant messaging, etc.
What are some digital technologies we would need to make this transition happen for them seamlessly?
Mars would have its own internet and the first key application would be a send and recieve queue system to connect earth.
This would basically be a REST api that lets you send files, receive notifications of files sent to you, and download them.
It would definitely be paid or metered. I'm sure the first one would be vertically integrated (app owner exclusively controls the communication link) but future versions would probably allow anyone to bring the link to earth... a 2 sided market.
Look into sneakernet compatible data transfers, because Mars latency is closer to that than anything else. I haven't studied it, but NNCP might work https://nncp.mirrors.quux.org/
You could 'just' run a Mars cluster and direct Martians there, but you'll need to think carefully about how changes from Earth users and Mars users are merged. The window for in-flight changes from both sides is quite large, and waiting for interactive writes to another planet is unreasonable.
This does mean hard work on conflict resolution; some may be solvable by the system, but many will require user input, and that user input is likely to be delayed, as they'll likely have moved on to something else. Lots of not simple UX there, but 'everyone' will need it, so users will be forced to adapt.
At the user layer, IPFS or a better collaborative, content-addressed filesytem could be used - request a movie, then watch it once it downloads in 20 minutes. Once it's cached locally, anyone else can access it instantly. Federated communication apps with state-resolution (like Matrix but more asynchronous) would allow instant local communications, while still seamlessly supporting interplanetary contact.
For networking, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet
There is no 'instant' messaging between Earth and Mars. Not possible.