Greatest Hits of '07: Drunk Emailing

As we near year's end, I'm re-posting a few heavily-commented-upon posts from earlier in the year. Here's one of my favorites!

Now I'll admit that from time to time, I enjoy a good glass (or six) of, uh, wine, in the course of, oh, let's say an academic discussion or an evening symposium. One such evening last week led to an incident in which I, being thoroughly uninhibited and deeply joyful, decided to share my unedited joy with others...let's say coworkers...via email at 2am.

Although I didn't manage to embarrass myself out of a job, it led me to wonder why I don't hear more about drunk emailing. It must happen all the time. It's akin to drunk dialing (featured in the movie Sideways), but even easier to do (and easier to track down the next day in your Sent Mail folder). Imagine the ease of drunk emailing if you have a BlackBerry (or are just really good at texting). New technology gives us newer, faster, and more trackable ways to connect with the world at times when we really shouldn't.

Some (sober) Googling revealed that this does happen all the time, of course, and there's even a term for it: d-railing (apparently a slightly drunken conflation of "drunk emailing"). There's also drunk blogging and even (shudder) drunk eBaying.

I asked some friends what they do online when they're drunk, and by far the winner was: drunk iTunes Store purchases. That "buy now" button is just too easy. And then I remembered something from my evening of drunken computing...checking my Amazon wishlist, I discovered that I'd decided to treat myself to a few paperbacks that had been languishing on my list for a year. I even got the two-day shipping.

So let's have it, folks: what do you do online when inebriated?

Note: check out the 109 comments on the original post!