Drunk Email Is the New Drunk Dial

In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted Mosby said that “nothing good happens after 2:00 am.” Based on how intoxicated people strain their relationships by drunk dialing their respective partners, Ted must be right. The thing is, why resort to drunk dialing when you can always send a drunk email?

Sending irrational messages

Drunk emailing is just like drunk dialing: you forward a very heartfelt yet probably irrational message to the person who either broke your heart or hurt your ego. Either way, you will still regret it when you wake up in the morning. The only difference between the two is that in drunk emailing, you compose emails and not make phone calls.

Drunk email, in many ways, can be worse than drunk dialing. The proof of your temporary insanity, after all, is not another entry on the caller ID, but a message in your partner’s inbox. Unlike calls, emails can be forwarded. The recipient of your drunk email can even use your moment of weakness against you. Blackmail? It’s easy. He or she can expose it to the world by simply doing a few mouse clicks.

Preventing drunk emails

One of the best ways to stop yourself from sending drunk emails is to activate the Mail Goggles Labs application (that is, if you are using Gmail). The Mail Goggles Labs feature requires you to solve a couple of simple math problems that will confirm that you are sober (or awake) enough to send a sensible message. Enabling the Mail Goggles Labs feature not only prevents you from doing something that you will later regret, but also saves you from embarrassing yourself.