Open Features: Spam
Like all regular users of the Internet, Mike Wilson is irritated by Spam. Even more irritating is Chum. Don't know what Chum is? Then read on - and some of you may feel a little guilty.
Mike is the editor of Link, the journal of the National Association of Writers' Groups.
Spam! Don’t talk to me about spam! It’s the second most irritating aspect of emailing and the internet. No, it’s not the most irritating. the most irritating prize goes to Chum.
Chum arrives courtesy of your internet pal. It is another internet-blocking, time-consuming, memory-filling, mind-bogglingly useless, absolutely trash message: it’s the animated greetings cards which are now performing their antics on a thousand computers near or far away from you, 10 x 8 inch 600 dpi photographs of some family’s latest addition sent in error to every address in some plonker’s computer, or the joke films like the one of the mouse having intimate relations with a mouse.
I don’t want to receive that stuff. I’ve insufficient time left in my life to do all the things I want to do. I have no wish to waste more and more seconds and minutes waiting for these images to download.
Don’t tell me to get Broadband so that I can receive them faster. I don’t want to receive the stuff! Quickly or not. And I especially don’t want them from “friends”.
So if you’re one of my pals, don’t send me Chum. When I thought of the word “Chum” to stand for what I wanted to describe, I was told that Chum is fit only for dogs and, more to the point, it stinks! So “Chum” it is!
And yes, I am auditioning tomorrow for Grumpy Old Men.
Send this by email to everyone you know!
