Sunday, December 28, 2014

I drunk texted a bunch of people...


Can a drunk text ever do you any good? We will find out today as I share my experience of drunk texting my contact list on Christmas eve.

We all have a handful of these people, friends & acquaintances we haven't talked to for a while and it gets weird for us to reach out to them. But there is something about Christmas and New year (and also thanksgiving) that it becomes not so awkward to text random greetings to these people. Usually on Christmas day right at midnight, I get text messages from random friends and acquaintances who would wish me a merry Christmas. Often times I would respond to them and we would reconnect sometime in the new year over coffee or at a gathering.

Out of curiosity of how far a friendly invitation goes, I decided to start an experiment (after having a few glasses at a Christmas party) with a goal to reconnect with 33 old friends I haven't kept in touch with in hopes of reconnecting with them (And as a good Toastmaster, somewhere along the line introduce them to Toastmasters!)

This experiment is highly replicable for anyone with a phone and a list of contacts they haven't talked to for a while. To make a point that you will definitely get much better results than me, I've conducted this experiment in the worst possible time with the worst circumstances:
  1. Text was sent at the worst possible time: 3:33AM Christmas day.
  2. This text was hastily made after I had a few glasses at a Christmas party to show that you can never be too busy to wish friends a friendly Merry Christmas greeting.
  3. Text had a few grammatical errors due to a few insertions made. 
Sample size:   n= 33

Text Content:
"Hello,
How are you?
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas day with you family and friends and a happy 2015 year. I haven't seen some of you for a while, Let's reconnect and catch up in the new year. Feel free to drop me a line/text.
Edward Yuen"

Results:
Within 12 hours, I got back 14 responses from people I haven't talked to/seen for over a year and a couple even took up an invitation to catch up in the new year. Sadly some had moved on/changed numbers with their numbers being out of service. But it was great following up with those who have responded, hearing about what's new with them. It was definitely an interesting experiment conducted with influence of alcohol. The power of a kind greeting can go far and can mend long lost relationships.

New years eve is coming up, if you are looking for an opportunity to reconnect with long lost friends, this can be an opportunity to reconnect.


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