|
Author: Lisa Campbell Article source: http://www.selfseo.com/. Used with author's permission.
The trash folder in my main inbox hit 4000 today. Since I never throw anything out, I know that what's in there is courtesy of my email filter which is set to automatically delete anything that is forwarded from my work account from a certain person. That "person" is our spam filter that insists on sending me, the administrator, a notification when it blocks an email. It's also set to delete some other mail automatically, those would be that come from addresses that have sent me spam. So I have 4000 of these in my trash. Yippee.
The compulsion to hit the forward button is alive and well even with the plethora of information available on the web about the downside of doing just that. But I have a theory.
According to one website I visited "The rate of growth of Internet use in the United States is currently two million new Internet users per month." 2 MILLION new internet users a MONTH?? It all makes sense now. There are too many newbies out there running amok with a computer, a mouse and an internet connection clicking the forward button!
But who can blame them really? Before I learned the downside of forwarding this cyberjunk and more importantly, learned that most of it isn't even true, I was among the forwarding faithful, sending on mountains of useless information to everyone I knew as quickly as it arrived.
Perhaps it was the first thing I got that I knew wasn't true that turned on the light bulb, or perhaps it was the first thing I got that just didn't make any sense, after all, who in their right mind would believe that Bill Gates was sitting around tracking forwarded emails and would actually pay you if you "passed it on"? I may be gullible, but that one was just too hard for me to swallow.
I started to look into these warnings and threats and found that the majority of them were either not true at all, like the Bill Gates hoax, or, if they were true, they were so out of date that they were no longer relevant, like the Phenylpropanolamine Drug Warning which continues to make it's rounds almost 5 years later.
By this time, I had accumulated a vast number of contacts, friends and family that didn't bother to check and just hit that forward button.
Originally, I did the research myself upon receiving a new piece of misinformation and emailed back to the sender with my findings. Eventually I became the "go to girl" for accuracy and everyone I knew would send me the email and ask me if it was real. Flattered to be considered "the expert" among my friends I dutifully did the background work and reported back but hey, I'm a mother of 3 and work full time and as honoured as I was to be the "go to girl", it got to be tedious. That's when I started sending people links to reliable sources for them to find their own answers.
I was pleased when the "go to girl" mail slowed to a trickle as did the forwarded email from people I knew. That is until several of those 2 million new users a month were people I knew and it started all over again!
First came my husband's "Auntie" who's feelings were hurt when I asked her not to forward these messages any more with an explanation of course. She was "only trying to be helpful!" She replied. Well, of course she was, isn't that why everyone forwards these messages? To be helpful.
Then came my niece who politely asked my permission to send me a few chain letters. Being the softie that I am I agreed to a "few". This was my introduction into teen angst via email. Since I was far from teenaged when I became an internet junkie, I hadn't been exposed to the suicidal poetry and advice on being a good girlfriend end of the chain letter spectrum but soon I got more than I could handle since all her friends started adding me to their address books! (And I was expecting what?)
Finally my brother-in-law of only several days forwarded me a notice that the government would soon be taxing email on behalf of Canada Post! sigh.
It was time to make a choice - either reinstate myself as the "go to girl" again, ignore and delete and let the forwarders click away in blissful ignorance, or do my part in passing the message along that forwarding every piece of junk that comes into your in box is not cool.
Of course, never knowing when to shut up won over the other choices. Hopefully the idea will catch on and people will go the extra step and rather than just delete that hoax, do the sender a favour and reward them with some useful information that might just help reduce the clutter in everyone's inbox. Lisa Campbell
http://www.surfinglegendsandhoaxes.com
Career Success: Take Charge of Your Career
Do you want to know how to jump-start your professional career? Or, are you already in the trenches trying to be a high performer and wanting to make a quantum...
The Biggest Mistake That People Make With Email Marketing
People love information, especially FREE information. If you are able to deliver information that has a high perceived-value, you will find some taker-uppers t...
Online Sales: 10 Magical Online Sales Tactics To Sell Your Products Faster
There are certain magical tactics that work so well that
when you use them, they can help you sell your products
faster and make more money.
The Cost of Gastric Bypass Surgery
The cost of gastric bypass surgery and other bariatric surgical procedures are high averaging between $20,000 and $35,000. Many insurance companies are beginni...
Coping With Male Pattern Baldness
This article looks at the causes of and treatments for male pattern baldness.
Casino Games – Blackjack
The objective of Blackjack. How to play this exciting casino game.
Fantasy Football Offers Gamblers a Unique Kind of Fun
If you are a gambler, and you enjoy sports, chances are you've bet on football at some time in your life. If you love football, and you have never played fanta...
Zen Listening
Zen: Finding enlightenment through intuition and introspection.
What Can I Do To Improve My Job-Interviewing Skills?
Whether you're a student job seeker or a polished and proven executive, the first thing you must come to terms with is, "Regardless of the position you seek, yo...
Maryland State Legislator wants to kill jobs and small business
Last year a Maryland State Legislator whom I presume never owned a small business of any type suggested that franchises in the state needed to be audited every ...
7 Seal Judgements Continued
This is the 2nd part of the 7 Seal judgements. I am not going to pull any punches on what will be discussed in these articles. These articles have to do with t...
Home Loans For People With Very Bad Credit - Improve Your Chances of Getting Approved
Here are some tips to help you get a mortgage loan, even with bad credit.
Email Marketing Strategies That Work
While the main use of email marketing is to drive traffic to your web site, there are other important reasons that email communications should be used as part o...
Refinishing Hardwood Floors
The quality of the wear layer determines frequency of refinishing of hardwood floors. Poor quality products can not withstand being refinished even once. The th...
Articles That Sizzle - Top Ten Topics
Who are you writing for? A limited group of subscribers to a magazine about pig farming or a wider, more general audience? Once you know who you're writing for,...
Womens Cosmic Personality Quiz: Are You a Star Woman or an Earth Mother?
20 Questions to Help You Discover Your Personality Type and How it
Affects Your Relationships
Top 50 Father Quotations
Peruse a thought-provoking collection of the top 5 dad-related quotes...
Marriage Advice: Ten Ways to Add Romance to Your Marriage
Every marriage needs a healthy dose of on-going romance to add spice, delight, and fun to the relationship. It's not enough to just start out with a sizzling ro...
Top Six Reasons to Buy a Digital Piano Instead Of an Acoustic
There are several reasons why piano and keyboard players choose digital pianos over their acoustic counterparts. Let's talk about some of the main reasons. 1. T...
May Day, May Day
Down the Bush and Balir online pub talk about hot topics in the American media by two British comedy writers.
How to Dodge Distribution Difficulties
Distribution is often the most challenging aspect of exporting and one that exporters spend the least amount of time on, often with disastrous results - lacklus...
Driving in Greece - How Bad is it?
The Greeks have a bad reputation in Europe for their driving skills, but what is it really like and what particular precautions should you take?
Why Be Great?
To be really great at anything, you must have passion!! Too many people work at the job that is most convenient for them, rather than focusing on what you love...
How to Master Low Limit Texas Holdem, Part 1 - Introduction
I decided to start a series about how to learn and master Texas Hold'em because this is the most played game in the online poker rooms and it has large populari...
|
Print this page