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Feb 13, 2003 I cannot be alone in this. If there is even one person who shares in this irritation, then you are a person worth knowing! As I log into my email I hope to find a few kind words from a friend or two, an acceptance from one of the many writing publications I have submitted to, perhaps a sentimental e-card or two, and possibly something stating I have definitely won, without paying, an all amenities included cruise around the world anytime I want. While often I do get nice e-cards, quick notes from friends, and acceptances as well as rejections for my writing, I have yet to get that all paid trip. My opinion on why I haven’t received that free trip is down to this. Too much junk email! I receive so many ridiculous offers from dating, losing weight, finding my soul mate, ink jet offers, debt consolidation, and thousands of other ads in which clutter my mailbox, that they are surely keeping the free trip from ever getting into my hot little hands. I realize this seems to be the downfall of having email and the one or two times I was click happy I scrolled past important information stating I would be automatically subscribed by hitting enter while casually submitting for some plasma television drawing, but still, enough is more than enough. Of the twenty minutes I want to spend on my email, fourteen of those precious minutes are spent deleting. I’ve even had something I deleted pop right back into my mailbox within five minutes! I have to admit that occasionally I have been guilty of signing up for anything on free airline tickets and something that sounded really great but I didn’t know what they were trying to sell, simply out of sheer curiosity. I haven’t learned yet that I am still going to have to pay a price somewhere and of course that by clicking that button I have just accepted to thirty more emails from sponsors and the co-sponsors and the vicious conspirators of the junk mail phenomenon. Sure it isn’t as wasteful as when you receive paper mail, you aren’t harming the environment and it isn’t really hurting anyone, but I personally have never had the problem of finding something to complain about in my day and this just adds to it. In fact, sometimes I feel downright betrayed. Why you ask? Well I will explain myself. I am good at that. I sit down in front of my social window (yes, the computer) and immediately log on. The inbox states I have forty-eight glorious messages( I ignore the seventy-nine in the bulk mail, those get automatically deleted) and a smile instantly forms upon my face. Excitement races through my veins and I rub my hands together eagerly. I relay in my mind whom I should have heard from by now and wonder if someone will continue to help me on my path to becoming a well known author with a bestseller every time I write a single word, or if someone remembered it was my birthday and who to cross off of my Christmas card list for the upcoming year. Instead my ego takes a crushing blow as I realize that of those forty- eight used up spaces, only four or five have any real meaning to my life. Immediately I curse those friends who were supposed to reply back, as I ALWAYS do(attention friends of mine, ignore that line), decide I will never submit a single thing for publication ever again, and promptly grab something to eat to drown my sorrow of being the nobody I try really hard to not be. I am now a victim of absolute deception. My whole self- confidence is shot and now I am going to have to workout twice as hard because the whole bag of chips is gone and I am not feeling any better. Man, life can sure be cruel sometimes! Once everything else is deleted I am left with a lot of room for more mail to come through, but for the rest of the day, regardless of what comes through, I can never regain that initial surprise from the morning. The rest of my day meanders along with little excitement or hope. You are probably thinking why do I bother to go through that every morning. To be honest, I am a serious creature of habit and I don’t think I can change the process even if I wanted. Even when I try to prepare myself or think differently, once I see that number in the inbox, I am hooked and the feelings run their course. In fact, just to show that I am a balanced person, and once in awhile prone to being hypocritical, if there is a very low number in the inbox, I am just as depressed because then it is blatantly clear that there isn’t a soul out there who cares about me. Even a piece of junk mail would have been nice! I just can’t win. Email Nancy Jackson: coryann93@yahoo.com ------------ Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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