I spent 5 hours calling random people in hopes that at least one of them would do my survey. For 195A, our homework this week is to participate in Prof. Jackson's Survey project. I was originally really excited to do this. It was not at all what I expected.
I called about 298 people and no one wanted to do the survey! A majority of the number were disconnected. A decent amount of the numbers either kept on ringing or went to voice mail. Several of the numbers went to businesses and fax machines. These did not bother me so much because I somewhat expected it. What really made me sad were the people that were completely rude. People would not even wait for me to finish my little speech before they hung up on me. Some people yelled gibberish then hung up. It was rare to get someone that was polite about not wanting to participate. The people that were most rude were from the Silicon Valley. We started to call all over California and the people furthest were the nicest. It was really surprising.
I cannot imagine doing this on a regular basis. I know I should not take it to heart because it really is not anything personal but it just hurts my feelings a little. Also, I feel like I didn't accomplish anything. I spent 5 hours calling almost 300 people and I did not get one survey. I feel like I failed.
I knew my day was doomed to be disappointing after that earthquake this morning. I just felt like it was going to be a bad day.