u/cloakandagger123

Hi all

I'm doing my uni thesis at the University of Birmingham and have picked adult loneliness as my subject and I need participants to test something- does matching people based on shared life experience create better and more lasting connections for those facing loneliness rather than matching based on not having anything in common? I'm looking for the first 20 people to take part in an 8 week email 'pen-pal' experiment split into two groups of 10 (A & B). I'm already up to 5 so first come first serves.

Here's the link to my 5 question survey (it's super-quick)  https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/flSqkNRE

- Group A will be matched with someone going through a similar life moment- loneliness, grief, new parenthood, redundancy, retirement, feeling unseen- and will get a conversation starter to open with and continuous prompts throughout the experiment to keep things going.

- Group B will also be matched with someone at random, with no shared life context, no conversation starters and no prompts.

At the start and end, everyone will be asked to complete the UCLA loneliness test to see if there has been any quantifiable change in happiness. Signing up would really help me.

Once kicked off everything will be done via email, other than writing your 'pen-pal' messages; no cost, no paper or any formal commitment beyond giving it a genuine go. As an older MBA student I've picked this topic based on my own experiences and happy to share more about the research, why I picked this topic and what I'm hoping to find. Please share this with anyone else you think might want to take part. Thank you

Hey all

I'm doing my university thesis at the University of Birmingham and have picked adult loneliness as my subject and I'd like to test something specific- does matching people based on shared life experience create better and more lasting connections for those facing loneliness rather than matching based on not having anything in common? I'm looking for 20 people to take part in an 8 week email 'pen-pal' experiment split into two groups of 10 (A & B).

Here's the link to my survey: https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/flSqkNRE

- Group A will be matched with someone going through a similar life moment- loneliness, grief, new parenthood, redundancy, retirement, feeling unseen- and will get a conversation starter to open with and continuous prompts throughout the experiment to keep things going.

- Group B will also be matched with someone at random, with no shared life context, no conversation starters and no prompts.

At the start and end, everyone will be asked to complete the UCLA loneliness test to see if there has been any quantifiable change in happiness. Signing up would really help me.

Everything will be done via email other than writing to your 'pen-pal'; no cost, no paper or any formal commitment beyond giving it a genuine go. As an older MBA student I've picked this topic based on my own experiences and happy to share more about the research, why I picked this topic and what I'm hoping to find. Please share this with anyone else you think might want to take part.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, thanks to the mods for allowing me to post.

I'm doing my university thesis and have picked adult loneliness as my subject and I'd like to test something specific: does matching people based on shared life experience create better and more lasting connections than matching based on not having anything in common? I'm looking for 20 people to take part in an 8 week email 'pen-pal' experiment split into two groups of 10 (A & B).

Group A will be matched with someone going through a similar life moment- loneliness, grief, new parenthood, redundancy, retirement, feeling unseen- and will get a conversation starter to open with and continuous prompts throughout the experiment to keep things going.

Group B will also be matched with someone at random, with no shared life context, no conversation starters and no prompts.

At the start and end, everyone will be asked to complete the UCLA loneliness test to see if there has been any change and I'll be tracking other KPI's along the way as well as collecting feedback at the end. It would really help me and it may also help you find someone worth keep in in touch with, so could end up being a win-win for us all (which would be amazing).

Everything other than writing your 'letters' will be done for you via email- no cost, no paper, no formal commitment beyond giving it a genuine go and I'll publish the results publicly whatever they show.

As an older MBA student I've picked this topic based on my own experience so if you're interested, DM me your email address. Happy to share more about the research, why I picked this topic and what I'm hoping to find and please share with anyone else you think might want to take part- the more the merrier.

I read that more people are looking for penpals, if this were a service would anyone use it?

Does it drive anyone else bat shit crazy when you have no idea if a radiator is working to the temperature you set or when you can’t get the temperature you like? My heating kicks in below 6 degrees, which is mainly the evenings now, but the rad in my bedroom does not feel like my thermostat setting, my bathroom feels even colder and I’m always fiddling with those bloody dials. All radiators are bled weekly to help with this issue. Smart valves are expensive given the number of radiators I have and the varying temperatures in each room mean I end up fiddling with those useless knobs constantly. If there was a cheap and simple way of showing each rads temperature, would anyone else buy one? I’ve persisted with this issue long enough (owned my house for 6 years) but no more and isn’t Reddit the place where business are created?!

Perhaps not a summer issue, but does it drive anyone else bloody mad when they have no idea if a radiator is working, or struggle to get it to a temperature they like? My heating kicks in below 6 degrees, which is mainly the evenings now, but the rad in my bedroom does not feel like my thermostat level, the bathroom feels even colder and I’m always fiddling with those bloody dials. All radiators are bled weekly to help with this issue. Smart valves are expensive given the number of radiators I have and the varying temperatures in each room mean I end up fiddling with those useless knobs constantly. If there was a cheap and simple way of showing each rads temperature- would anyone else buy one?