Considering my own parents would be frustrated at me for calling just to say hi and not having a real reason to call, I don't know if saying hi, what's up? to someone I haven't talked to in a while is appropriate or not. How do you initiate contact with someone? The only person I feel able to initiate contact with is my ex because he hasn't seemed to mind me saying hi for the sake of saying hi either during the relationship or afterward. How do you stay in contact with people? You're not supposed to ever need anything from anyone else, but then there's no other reason to talk to anyone because you have to have a specific reason to do so or you're just wasting their time I guess.