Chain-letters were already around on paper before the internet started (we all remember the "Send this on and you will find luck the next day" letters). Although money (postage) and work (making paper copies) was involved, the chain letters still found enough gullible people to be able to spread. With the start of electronic mail and the possibility to copy and forward hundreds of emails within seconds, the chain letter had its time of prosperity. Hoaxes and chain letters became a real threat to every mail server as they got flooded with millions of copies within minutes.
I couldn't understand why it worked before the internet at all, I understood why it flourished in the early days of the world wide web, as people just sent on everything they got if it sounded a bit reasonable (and it was just too easy to do!), but in the time of online viruses, worms and spam, I really thought people would start to think before they press the forward button!!
Most of the hoaxes and chain letters are easy to spot. If you are not sure, a simple search on google normally reveals their true nature. So why do people still believe that they can get anything for free if they send an email to all their friends?? In the beginning I was annoyed when I got the same email 20 times a day from friends....nowadays I'm almost getting angry! Somehow I have this strange opinion that people could spot and delete them themselves.
I have to be honest, I didn't get one for a while and there was a sprout of hope that we've reached a critical mass of people who are aware of them to kill them once and for all. But how wrong I was! Two days ago I saw the walls in Facebook filled with this message:
Attention all Facebook membeRs.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you’re active please send
to other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg
It has all features of a standard chain letter: It gives you a nice story about a problem (which is not there in the first place), threatens the receiver by telling you that something is going to happen to you if you don't forward it and askes you to send it to all your friends, pets, toys and future children! There are immideately several questions which should come up:
- Why can't Facebook check my activity within the system?
- Why don't they just send a message to everybody themselves?
- Would Facebook really delete accounts without hesitation?
- Why can't Mark Zuckerberg write "members" correctly???
Facebook had to react (as walls filled up with millions of stupid chain letters) and delete them!
I hope everybody who read this post is going to think twice everytime a child wants a liver by email, some account is going to be closed down, Microsoft wants to send you money or the world can only be saved by sending on a message! It will never be true and I'm going to hate you for having to delete the emails/posts that reach me! And believe me, only one in a hundred is going to get a different reaction, like the mother of all chain letters or the anti-letter. So if you are not absolutely sure, don't try! ;-)
In hope to have changed the world again with this post,
Sven
1 comment:
I know I've been guilty of forwarding a few emails in the past to yourself. I just hope that I was lucky enough to be one of the 1 in 100 that didn't make you mad :-). But, I've seen the light as it were!
I definitely get tired of deleting spam/junk email just like I do the kind that slips through the letterbox. It goes straight into the 'trash'. Very occasionally something useful reaches my hands but I can't say the same for email (though sometimes something cute or fun does!) In fact, the forwarding of jokes, poems etc can also be quite annoying after a while. At first it seemed nice that that particular friend had thought of me, but I guess I'd rather they just send a brief email with a quick 'hello, how are you?'.
The same can be said for Facebook. I'd rather my 'friends' send me a message/post than the continual stream of time consuming and pointless applications, hence my departure from Facebook (I may give them/it a second chance ;-)).
Going back to the main crux of your blog, I guess there are people out there that just don't think about what they're doing when they press that forward button. But I have hope that things will eventually change!
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