Chain letters

Way back when, there used to be things called chain letters - where you were expected to make actual copies of letters and send them to people you knew, with good luck to follow if you kept this up, and horrible misfortune soon to hit you if you dared to break the chain.

This was a nasty thing, and not many people kept the chains going because it actually cost money, specifically stamps.

So why do so many people do this with emails? Because it doesn't cost them anything directly? It is still SPAM, and costs the people running the servers. It is junk mail. And if you actually read it, it tries to make you feel guilty because you don't want to continue to waste peoples time, energy and money with propigating it.

Yes, I have passed along jokes, and an occasional nice email. I have tried to never request that these be forwarded however. If I like a sentiment then I may send it out to several people, but I don't ask them to pass it on.

I guess it is a pet peeve of mine really. Just another little annoyance in our modern world. I should be thankful if this is all that I have to be annoyed about - when so many other people have real problems to be concerned with.

So if I don't resend out the SPAM you sent me, it isn't because I'm a selfish heartless bastard who doesn't care about anything or anyone other than himself. I'm not denying that I'm a selfish heartless bastard. That's just not why I don't send it out. Email chain letters are as bad their now defunct snail mail conterparts, and I refuse to participate in them.