To see a video on students’ embarassing drunken messages, click here.
To read an article about students’ e-mailing and texting accident, click here.
Drunk dialing is a frequent phenomenon among college students. But there are more ways to reach that special someone, ex-partner, employer or friend while in a drunken state.
People are succumbing to sending drunken text messages, e-mails and even Facebook messages. The phone calls and text messages usually occur late at night after putting back a few drinks and results in the recipient being roused from sleep.
Sending drunk messages via e-mail and Facebook doesn’t have the same urgency as calls or text messages. But they can just be as regretful the next morning.
Google has recently tried to prevent users from suffering the consequences of logging into their e-mail accounts the morning after and reading embarrassing, incoherent messages in the outbox.
Mail Goggles is a new program that intercepts sent e-mails using Google’s e-mail service, Gmail.
The feature requires users to solve a few simple math problems within a certain amount of time before clicking “send.” If the problems are answered incorrectly, Google will prompt the user to get a good night’s sleep and try again in the morning.
“Cognition and memory are deeply affected by alcohol consumption resulting in negative recall of material learned, which could be indicated when someone is unable to perform mathematical functions,” said Kathryn Saichuk, Student Health Center Wellness Education coordinator.
Erik Kenzie, LSU Health Sciences Center psychologist, said alcohol affects many areas of the brain, causing coordination problems like slurred speech and stumbling when walking.
But it can also result in problems including performing simple tasks or problem solving.
“When people get intoxicated, people lose the ability to perform these tasks, and what you see is what is called ‘disinhibited,'” he said.
The Mail Goggles feature can be adjusted to any user’s drinking schedule, but it’s intended for late nights and weekends.
The University will switch to Gmail as its official e-mail server for students in January, said Sheri Thompson, Information Technology Planning and Communications officer.
The University operates on Out Blaze, but students enrolling in January will automatically receive Gmail accounts. All students will be switched to Gmail by June 2009.
Students can enable Mail Goggles under “Labs” on the settings section of their Gmail accounts.
But students seem more concerned with the immediate effects of drunk dialing or text messaging than e-mail.
“When you drunkenly call someone, you have to physically speak to them, but when you drunkenly text them, with the removal you can say what you want,” said Laura Doré, history freshman. “With Facebook, you don’t have to think about their response just yet.”
Doré has been a victim of receiving drunken calls and Facebook messages.
“A friend of mine drunkenly Facebooked me one night,” she said. “It wasn’t a full sentence, and I didn’t even know what his point was.”
Doré said “liquid courage” gives people the confidence to call or send messages to those they typically wouldn’t when sober.
“People will say things or do things which under normal circumstances would be socially inappropriate or would normally be blocked by peoples’ better judgment,” Kenzie said.
Andrew Maberry, mass communication freshman, drunkenly called his ex-girlfriend while on a date last year.
“I told her that [my date] was more attractive and [my date’s] sex was better,” he said. “I told [my ex] she was good for nothing and all this other miserable stuff. And I told her that she was going to go to college and get pregnant.”
Maberry said he had no recollection of the phone call until his ex-girlfriend filled him in the next day.
“I was just really mean, and I got really angry,” Maberry said. “When you get drunk, you just don’t care what you do.”
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Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]