Recently I’ve had little to do and have taken up one of my favorite pastimes of looking for instances of my name on Google in addition to those of my friends. For a change I decided to search out the names of folks I’ve known in the past. Two were a couple I used to see on a regular basis but only at a specific event. One was someone I considered a dear friend from college who I had not been in touch with for more than seven years. Yet another is someone I knew from first grade (!!!) who I remember because she was my very first girlfriend. The former three I contacted via email to say hello, nothing deep or expecting them to respond with open arms of “OMG I MISSED U!!! WBS K TNX” and I haven’t heard back. The last one I contacted through her old friend who kept in contact with her since she left the state in hopes there would be some way of saying hello or seeing if I was remembered in one regard or another.
The emails have gone unresponded and the rational side of me says, “They’re probably not online as much as you and think of email as a novelty rather than an important kind of communication” since in my experience most folks are like that. The irrational side of me says they’re completely creeped out by someone they haven’t heard from in years and probably rightly so since if I was important contact would’ve been maintained.
Would you have been creeped out if such a thing happened to you? Is this creepy?
You posting in purple? No, maybe annoying, but not creepy.
But honestly, I have gotten e-mails out of the blue from folks I haven’t seen in almost 20 years. Not creepy at all.
I’ve found some old friends online before… I think it’s a nice way to keep in touch and not creepy at all 
I don’t think it’s creepy at all. If you kept following up w/o responses, that might be creeping toward creepy, but you’re not doing that.
The lack of response could be just that they’re busy or have other things going on. No matter what, I think (in general) people like to be remembered so there is nothing wrong in what you did, but you just may not receive responses for reasons that you just won’t know.
No, it’s not creepy. I’d guess that they probably haven’t checked their email. It’s still the holiday season and all, so maybe they’re avoiding the computer for more personal contact.
Hell, there are some of us (me) who are online every day, yet still only check our email once every couple weeks, or even once a month. I don’t really have any “email buddies,” so it’s always just a bunch of spam when I check.
I do agree with UncleBill about the purple posting, though…
I don’t find it creepy at all. My high school sweetheart, whom I haven’t spoken with in years, recently e-mailed me. It’s been fun catching up on each others lives and people with used to know. Unfortunately, I’m now on his mass “unfunny joke” e-mail list.
I dont find it creepy…actually, I have a few old friends I would like to try to find…any suggestions as to how to go about it???
I’d suggest Google by looking for their name in quotes. Also try to look for names of their family members too. The Ultimates is a good one-stop shopping stalking, for lack of a better word and thesaurus, site and has helped me now and again.
If you don’t mind paying money there are lots of pay sites that get surprising results from what I’ve heard secondhand. I’ve never used them because I’m cheap.
And I’ll use purple all I want thankyouverymuch. Pllbt.
It might just be that the e-mail addresses you found are old. If I search for my name, it turns up e-mails I haven’t used in over 6 years, but not the one I currently use. Of course, in the past 6 or 7 years I’ve probably had almost the same number of e-mail addresses (plus the work addresses).
So it might just be old information.
Put me in for not creepy. I am pretty easy to find on the web these days, and I hear back from old friends every couple of months. A friend from high school found me a few years back, and now we are better friends than we were back then (she helped me redesign my website, matter of fact, and I acknowledged her in my book).
If I got an e-mail from a guy I hadn’t heard from in years, I’d probably be a tad suspicious about his motives. What’s going on in his life that he is seeking me out now after all this time?
And, sorry, if I hadn’t seen him since the FIRST GRADE, I’d be VERY creeped out.
Just wondering, why not try and seek out new friendships instead of trying to re-establish friendships that are decades old?
Little safety tip I figured out all by myself a while back: if your ‘first girlfriend’ was named Pamela Anderson, do NOT do a Google image search for her from work.
This is a good point. Recently, I’ve heard many anecdotes of people being contacted by “old friends,” and then it turns out that they want to sell Amway or something. But I’d give people the benefit of the doubt until I heard otherwise.
I don’t think it’s creepy at all.
I don’t agree with PunditLisa’s other point. There is nothing wrong with trying to renew old friendships.
Another vote in the not-creepy camp; repeated mails to non-responses would be, but a polite open “hi there,” not really.
One vote for creepy. Haven’t talked to her since first grade. That’s a little odd.
But, googling friends you have lost track of is fine ordinarily, IMHO. I have done it.
Oh, and another vote against the purple too. 
Not creepy if they were friends from middle or high school, creepy if they were friends in 1st grade.
Google searching your name can be fun. I searched “Andygirl” which is my screen name on my other messageboards and it lead me to this board. Cool, eh?
Not creepy. However, I wouldn’t overanalyze not getting a response. You’re coming out of nowhere, and they may simply not be interested in getting back in touch.
[sub]And definitely lose the purple.[/sub]
It’s not creepy in my opinion, but, unless the topic line was abundantly clear, you may have been branded as spam and deleted without being read.
I know I’ve nearly deleted (and probably have deleted) e-mails from people finding me from high school, because I get twenty junk e-mails e-mails a day with a topic like ‘bup - how are you doing?’
I’m just curious about the people. I’m not looking for sex or money.