SPAM
Let's do a little word study.
The word? Spam.
The first image that comes to my mind is of a friend of mine who was invited to 'entertain' at a Bat Mitzvah party, and after a silly contest with the Jewish participants tried to give the winner her prize, a can of SPAM.
The shock and horror on the woman's face as my friend tried to convince her to take the prize from her ("it's not really ham, it's Spam! You can touch it!") can only be imagined.
The second image that comes to my mind is the pile of unsolicited e-mails and bot-generated myspace and facebook messages that I have spent hours of precious time clearing out of accounts. No, I don't want to safely store your $30 million in my bank account so that your corrupt government won't take it from you (all you need is my bank account information and passwords so the deposit can be made directly to my account! Awesome!). No I don't want to try your 'free' sunglasses for just the price of postage and handling, which happens to be $29.95. And no, I don't want to see where photos of me have been posted on whotheheckcares.com.
I won't go on. I could waste just as much of my precious time describing all the varied forms of spam that have shown up to invade my safe little online world.
Is there a toxic waste dump in cyberspace? Whatever 'cyberspace' is, spam probably takes up a good 35 percent of it. I pity the cybers. They have more junk than we humans do in our 'humanspace.' Go green, cybers, go green!
The last image I will conjure is that square can of pink 'meat' that 'nourishes' millions of people daily. I don't in any way want to cast a negative shadow on this food item. It's just that I know far more about the cyber version. And it IS UNFORTUNATE for the company that packages SPAM that their name has been hijacked to mean 'all that is unwanted' in online communication.
I will probably, very soon, buy a box...can...package...not sure what to call it...of SPAM and fry up a slice for a sandwich just to voice my defiance of online spam, and in defiance of the cruel hijacking of SPAM's good name. But I will probably scrape that slimy layer of white whatever that fills those little air gaps in the corners between the SPAM and the can.
Fire up the griddle.
The word? Spam.
The first image that comes to my mind is of a friend of mine who was invited to 'entertain' at a Bat Mitzvah party, and after a silly contest with the Jewish participants tried to give the winner her prize, a can of SPAM.
The shock and horror on the woman's face as my friend tried to convince her to take the prize from her ("it's not really ham, it's Spam! You can touch it!") can only be imagined.
The second image that comes to my mind is the pile of unsolicited e-mails and bot-generated myspace and facebook messages that I have spent hours of precious time clearing out of accounts. No, I don't want to safely store your $30 million in my bank account so that your corrupt government won't take it from you (all you need is my bank account information and passwords so the deposit can be made directly to my account! Awesome!). No I don't want to try your 'free' sunglasses for just the price of postage and handling, which happens to be $29.95. And no, I don't want to see where photos of me have been posted on whotheheckcares.com.I won't go on. I could waste just as much of my precious time describing all the varied forms of spam that have shown up to invade my safe little online world.
Is there a toxic waste dump in cyberspace? Whatever 'cyberspace' is, spam probably takes up a good 35 percent of it. I pity the cybers. They have more junk than we humans do in our 'humanspace.' Go green, cybers, go green!
The last image I will conjure is that square can of pink 'meat' that 'nourishes' millions of people daily. I don't in any way want to cast a negative shadow on this food item. It's just that I know far more about the cyber version. And it IS UNFORTUNATE for the company that packages SPAM that their name has been hijacked to mean 'all that is unwanted' in online communication.
I will probably, very soon, buy a box...can...package...not sure what to call it...of SPAM and fry up a slice for a sandwich just to voice my defiance of online spam, and in defiance of the cruel hijacking of SPAM's good name. But I will probably scrape that slimy layer of white whatever that fills those little air gaps in the corners between the SPAM and the can.
Fire up the griddle.
posted by Christopher at
7:57 AM
