For weeks I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve searched for a concise way of articulating my feelings on how the electronic era has changed our lives. Then it hit me.<\/p>\n
In Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Parade Magazine, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cartoon that shows a man at the computer, asking his wife, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point of having an opinion if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t email it to everyone you know?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Now that was perfect: We must share, but if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no one to receive the message, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like the age-old question: If a tree falls in the forest and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? A slightly modernized feminist version of that asks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If a man says something and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no woman around to hear it, is the man still wrong?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a topic for another column. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stick to emails. Back in the days when we actually had to pay postage to send things off, people were much more parsimonious on matters for distribution. Today, when you figure the ridiculously cheap cost of forwarding something \u00e2\u20ac\u201d electronically, to large numbers of people \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that makes such a communication a bargain. But at the same time it cheapens the product when everyone else has received the same thing.<\/p>\n
For example, a few years ago, a friend forwarded me an email containing the many permutations of the simple word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The email mentioned one can beat up, get up, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfess up, throw up, finish up, etc., without \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d necessarily indicating a direction.<\/p>\n
Though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m appreciative of any email I get, that is intended to provide material for this column, I admit that same email keeps flowing this way. I estimate I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve received that communication 30 times, and each time I thank the sender and try to explain I used the idea on Dec. 1, 2005.<\/p>\n
Rapid exchange of emails aside, there are those whose compulsion to forward material amazes me. One person, a teacher from Deming, once forwarded me (and about a zillion others) a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revised\u00e2\u20ac\u009d constitution whose main theme was for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153illegals to go back where they came from.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It was written by a southern legislator and repeated the theme that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153English is what we speak in the U.S. of A.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I believe the sender owes her job to the fact that almost all of her students \u00e2\u20ac\u0153came from\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mexico. Writing back to ask about the apparent contradiction, I got her assertion that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hardly ever even read the emails; I just forward them because I think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re funny.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I suddenly got removed from her list.<\/p>\n
A former public figure from this area used the same excuse: I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t write the thing, just forwarded it. That offensive email, highly critical of then-candidate Barack Obama, referred not to his policies, party or beliefs but to the color of his skin.<\/p>\n
And so it goes that many people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hesitate to send emails to others but feign ignorance as to the content. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually write it; I merely sent it off.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yeah, right.<\/p>\n
A particularly noxious email arrived recently from someone way up the email pyramid, fulminating against groups who happen to think for themselves. The original sender declared, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If I receive this email 100 times, I will forward it 100 times.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Well, good, kind sir, but what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll that accomplish? The email declares that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For those of you who choose to dismiss this: If you believe that this is okay I believe you are a traitor to this country and everything it stands for.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forward that hot-button email. Now suddenly such action has become treasonous? When did the mere advent of the Internet (and other means of rapid communication) become matters of national security?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Emails of a slightly different tenor arrive with amazing frequency. These are the promises-and-threats variety that implore us to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forward this email to 20 people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and if you do, you will become rich.<\/p>\n
If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, well, just remember what happened to that man who broke the chain. And sometimes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to distinguish coincidence from cause and effect. True, my pet centipede, which I kept on a leash, got bisected going through a high-rise elevator \u00e2\u20ac\u201d after I broke the chain, but that might have been mere coincidence.<\/p>\n
A very recent email even provides a menu, essentially promising the granting of a wish depending on the number of people we send it to and the celerity with which we perform the deed.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an example:<\/p>\n
Forward the email to one person and your wish is answered in one year. Wish to speed up the process? Six people guarantee you good luck in just one month; nine people: five days; 20 people: three hours.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be foolhardy not to take the final, express lane offer.<\/p>\n
I did. However, one of the addresses must have bounced, as I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get my first wish, which was to rank third in wealth, just behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.<\/p>\n
The consolation prize came in instead; that was to have Katherine Zeta Jones appear in my dream.<\/p>\n
But now, my wife is planning to send an email to Katherine Zeta Jones, warning her to stay out of my dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For weeks I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve searched for a concise way of articulating my feelings on how the electronic era has changed our lives. Then it hit me. In Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Parade Magazine, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cartoon that shows a man at the computer, asking his wife, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point of having an opinion if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t email it to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":933,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}