| The trash folder in my main inbox hit 4000 today. | | | | back to the sender with my findings. Eventually I |
| Since I never throw anything out, I know that what's in | | | | became the "go to girl" for accuracy and everyone I |
| there is courtesy of my email filter which is set to | | | | knew would send me the email and ask me if it was |
| automatically delete anything that is forwarded from | | | | real. Flattered to be considered "the expert" among |
| my work account from a certain person. That "person" | | | | my friends I dutifully did the background work and |
| is our spam filter that insists on sending me, the | | | | reported back but hey, I'm a mother of 3 and work full |
| administrator, a notification when it blocks an email. It's | | | | time and as honoured as I was to be the "go to girl", it |
| also set to delete some other mail automatically, those | | | | got to be tedious. That's when I started sending people |
| would be that come from addresses that have sent | | | | links to reliable sources for them to find their own |
| me spam. So I have 4000 of these in my trash. | | | | answers.I was pleased when the "go to girl" mail |
| Yippee.The compulsion to hit the forward button is | | | | slowed to a trickle as did the forwarded email from |
| alive and well even with the plethora of information | | | | people I knew. That is until several of those 2 million |
| available on the web about the downside of doing just | | | | new users a month were people I knew and it started |
| that. But I have a theory.According to one website I | | | | all over again!First came my husband's "Auntie" who's |
| visited "The rate of growth of Internet use in the United | | | | feelings were hurt when I asked her not to forward |
| States is currently two million new Internet users per | | | | these messages any more with an explanation of |
| month." 2 MILLION new internet users a MONTH?? It | | | | course. She was "only trying to be helpful!" She replied. |
| all makes sense now. There are too many newbies | | | | Well, of course she was, isn't that why everyone |
| out there running amok with a computer, a mouse and | | | | forwards these messages? To be helpful.Then came |
| an internet connection clicking the forward button!But | | | | my niece who politely asked my permission to send |
| who can blame them really? Before I learned the | | | | me a few chain letters. Being the softie that I am I |
| downside of forwarding this cyberjunk and more | | | | agreed to a "few". This was my introduction into teen |
| importantly, learned that most of it isn't even true, I was | | | | angst via email. Since I was far from teenaged when I |
| among the forwarding faithful, sending on mountains of | | | | became an internet junkie, I hadn't been exposed to |
| useless information to everyone I knew as quickly as it | | | | the suicidal poetry and advice on being a good |
| arrived.Perhaps it was the first thing I got that I knew | | | | girlfriend end of the chain letter spectrum but soon I |
| wasn't true that turned on the light bulb, or perhaps it | | | | got more than I could handle since all her friends |
| was the first thing I got that just didn't make any sense, | | | | started adding me to their address books! (And I was |
| after all, who in their right mind would believe that Bill | | | | expecting what?)Finally my brother-in-law of only |
| Gates was sitting around tracking forwarded emails | | | | several days forwarded me a notice that the |
| and would actually pay you if you "passed it on"? I | | | | government would soon be taxing email on behalf of |
| may be gullible, but that one was just too hard for me | | | | Canada Post! sigh.It was time to make a choice - |
| to swallow.I started to look into these warnings and | | | | either reinstate myself as the "go to girl" again, ignore |
| threats and found that the majority of them were | | | | and delete and let the forwarders click away in blissful |
| either not true at all, like the Bill Gates hoax, or, if they | | | | ignorance, or do my part in passing the message along |
| were true, they were so out of date that they were | | | | that forwarding every piece of junk that comes into |
| no longer relevant, like the Phenylpropanolamine Drug | | | | your in box is not cool.Of course, never knowing when |
| Warning which continues to make it's rounds almost 5 | | | | to shut up won over the other choices. Hopefully the |
| years later.By this time, I had accumulated a vast | | | | idea will catch on and people will go the extra step and |
| number of contacts, friends and family that didn't | | | | rather than just delete that hoax, do the sender a |
| bother to check and just hit that forward | | | | favour and reward them with some useful information |
| button.Originally, I did the research myself upon | | | | that might just help reduce the clutter in everyone's |
| receiving a new piece of misinformation and emailed | | | | inbox. |