I am a Blocker (and a recovering Helper). I have never been a
Pusher. When it comes to Spam and Chain-Mails, maybe it is time we
started to look at the personalities that encourage people to do what
they do.
During the last few years when I have been actively blocking
chain-mails and fighting back against the Pushers and Helpers, I have
noticed a few common themes that come up again and again. I have summarized them here:
1) Pushers - these
are people who forward any email they get because they get a kick out
of sending the messages to their mailing list. They do not care and
they do not want to know whether the claims in the chain-mail are real.
If confronted, they will claim that they were "just trying to help",
and "why is it such a big deal? no one takes it seriously anyway." This
avoids the fact that they are willingly distributing false information
to other people. In plain speak, we call this lying. And these people
should be labeled spammers.
2) Helpers - these are the clueless side-kicks of the Pushers. These
are people who really want to help their friends. They are taken-in by
the threatening or appealing nature of the chain-mail. And they feel
that they are doing their duty to help others by forwarding on the
email. These are also the people who want to get that "prize", "luck",
"money credited to their account" that the email promises.
3) Blockers - if Pushers are the people who open the door, Blockers are
the people who slam it shut. These people will check www.snopes.com,
www.yahoo.com, and www.google.com to verify whether the chain-mail is
really true or not. If it is true, they will thank the sender and
possibly send it to one or two close family or friends who they think
would find it interesting. If it isn't true (99.9% of the time), they
will send the link to the article explaining why the article isn't true
directly back to the sender. If the sender is a Pusher, they won't
care, but if the sender is a Helper, they will likely apologize and
forward on the truth to their mailing list.
I used to be a Helper. I thought I was making a difference and
assisting people to know more about the risks and opportunities out
there. But one short and clear note from a Blocker changed my mind.
Even seemingly "good advice" can have a negative effect if it falsely
represents reality.
Isn't spreading a "good" lie just as bad as spreading a "bad" one?
Either way we are encouraging false information. And we all know how
much almost-truths we are drowning in. No, "good" lies do as much if
not more damage than "bad" lies. The best way to fight the increasing
mountains of emails, IM, websites, RSS and just pure information is to
focus on distributing accurate information.
We will never be able to guarantee whether something is the "100%
truth", but we can make sure it is accurate. And in a completely wired,
connected and net-enabled world, is that really so much to ask?
