Are Letters of Old Today's Spam?

Who has not encountered spam? Nooobody.

Spam is part of today's living. You get it in emails, and I would even lump junk mails (the hard copies) such as unwanted flyers in one's mailbox, solicitation and fund raising letters as spam.

But think about it. Some things considered spam today are actually valid and acceptable letters of yesteryear's.

Take love letters, for instance. Before, if a suitor wanted to declare his intentions to a girl, he'd write unsolicited love letters. The girl gets it, reads it, and either keep it or toss it in the garbage.

Then there's the unsolicited advertising materials or individual letters asking for help. You get it in the mail, you open it, and either respond or throw it away.

The difference in yesterday's unwanted letters and today's spam or junk mails, is that in the past, the recipient did not receive tons and tons of the unwanted mail, unlike today's; so in the past, the recipient was more receptive and actually read the mails, before putting them in the trash.

Recipients of emails today have the capability to junk or filter their mails. Thus, the love-struck suitor could not deliver a love letter or a poem, the merchant could not introduce a new product, the sick could not solicit financial help.

The technology that allows spamming is the technology that is trying to pin it down.

But for those small-time legit intentions caught in the web of over zealousness and too much filtering, thinking of other devices to bypass the hurdles sometimes becomes too expensive or too impossible.