A faithful reader emailed me last night, venting about an annoying thing that happened to her at work yesterday. In the course of just a few hours, she received 13 emails from a co-worker. You know the kind I'm talking about - "You're my special friend" or "Please forward this picture of a little girl found wandering the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina."
The faithful reader went on to say how the annoying forwarded emails aren't just from co-workers; she said she receives lots of them from family members, one in particular being an aunt that lives in California. The aunt is a retired teacher, has a Master's Degree, and was once chosen as the California Teacher Of The Year. Yet she sends scores of emails warning you not to call the 809 area code because they'll charge you $2200 a minute for the call. This intelligent, highly educated woman sends the faithful reader a dozen of these emails a week. The logical person in them seems to step aside when they read these emails and forward them on; if it's in an email, then it must be true . . . right? The faithful reader said that from time to time, the aunt will forward an email where someone cut and pasted something from Snopes or any of the other hoax-buster sites, saying that it was not true, and the aunt will apologize for sending the original email. Yet she continues to forward more emails. WTF?
The faitful reader told of another type of annoying forwarded email comes from people are very sweet and gentle, and who only wish the best for you. They convey their warm wishes in emails with blinking roses and psychodelic butterflies in them, and they tell you how dear you are to them and how much they value your friendship. I have no qualms about that - I love to get emails from friends telling me how much they like me. But when the last line of the email says "Please forward this to your 10 closest friends. One girl didn't, and within a week she lost all of her money and was diagnosed with an incurable disease." If I was really a good friend, would you put this kind of pressure on me? Life is hard enough . . . do you have to send me a curse?
1 comment:
And if you don't think it's a hoax...............you can go to
http://www.truthorfiction.com/search.htm and see if it's something you want to pass along........like tips for strokes, or something that might be worth giving it a once over.
Post a Comment