Week Eight: What's The Problem With Spam?

When you hear the word Spam we all inevitably think of the rounded blue rectangular can that is a Hawaiian favorite, and is also a delicacy wrapped in seaweed and has a very distinctive flavor. We all know of another type of spam that we tend to ignore due to its irrelevance in our lives. That’s right; I’m speaking of e-mail spam. To the everyday person, spam is a very easy thing to deal with. All we have to do is simply delete it. Most e-mails nowadays have built in spam filters or spam folders that simply forward all the e-mails to one place for latter disposal. Then why has so much time and technology been spent on eliminating spam? Simply put, we live amongst idiots. People will click on anything that sounds attractive and that could benefit them in any way. It could be anything from pencils to penicillin, mail-order brides to male enhancement drugs, or the seemingly all-time favorite spam fish hook…porn. So why do we care that some moron really thinks that a Russian beauty will actually be delivered in four to six weeks? For the same reason we don’t like little old ladies be taken advantage of in front of us to witness. As humorous as spam can be, it is a very dangerous tool that is used by thieves and con-artists to take advantage of the uninformed. It is also a moral violation of our peace and happiness, as well as a potential breach into your computer. This is the reason the FTC has cracked down hard on individuals and companies that do nothing more than spam your mailbox in an effort to gain some personal information that can be sold. Spam is the dirty pigeon that will always be in our world that we can seemingly never get rid of.