Technological advances in the past few decades have increased the ways in which we can and do communicate with each other. For the most part, those advances have been beneficial.  Just think back to the day when there were no cell phones or home computers.  We were forced to use landline telephones and write handwritten letters that took days and sometimes weeks to deliver.  Now, in the flash of a few seconds, we can  have access to all  our friends and family regardless of their location. After the introduction of email, the United States Postal Service felt a pinch because people seemed to prefer the speediness of email to the personal touch of a hand-written letter.  I can't even remember the last time I sat down and wrote a letter nor do I remember the last letter I received. Nowadays the word "mail" seems to be synonymous with the word "bills", but when it comes time to pay those bills, many of us forego the ritual of bill paying by mail to do it via the internet or through automatic withdrawal.  It's all about speed and convenience these days. And no, I don't yearn for the old days because I see most change as necessary and as having more pros than cons.  I do, however; find it somewhat ironic that people used to complain about all the junk mail they would receive daily and how it was a waste of time for the mailman to deliver all the garbage that found its way into our mailboxes. They wondered why they got it and where it came from, but now, we holler louder about the spam we receive in our email inboxes. As advances happen, our complaints seem to become more sophisticated and aimed towards the technology on which we've grown increasingly dependent. Yet as these advances have occurred, we stumble along without thinking about how to curb the abuse of the convenience that is at our fingertips or to adhere to any type of email etiquette that by all rights should be just good old common sense. But there again, common sense seems to have been replaced with speed and convenience.

Remember the good old days of telling a joke to a group of friends? And if that joke was funny, you had the privilege of hearing people's laughter. Now, each time I check my email, my inbox is stuffed full of a few things..spam and jokes from the same few people. Okay, spam is something I guess I’m just going to have to get used to, but the other is something I really don't understand and find it unnecessary and quite annoying. I would much rather have someone write a few lines ocassionally asking me how I'm doing than to have this daily barrage of jokes I never even open. Secondly, if a person feels the overwhelming urge to forward jokes to everyone in their address book, why do they do it by just hitting the FORWARD option? I, for one don't want the whole world to know my email address.  The BLIND CARBON COPY (BCC) option seems to be one of the most underused email features. Why isn't the rule of thumb for any joke being passed around the internet that if you wouldn't tell the joke out loud to a group of people then it isn't worth passing along in an email? LOL just isn't the same thing as actual laughter.  Some things just don't have a suitable substitute like manners and good judgment just to name a couple.

Don't get me wrong! I’m all for passing along a FUNNY joke (humor is a matter of preference), but most of the jokes I've had the misfortune to open and read only makes me wonder if the sender ever reads what they send before they send it. Alittle screening beforehand might make the recipients stop wondering what kind of drugs a person would have to take in order to make these jokes appear to be funny. Come on people! Think about those several jokes you forward to everyone daily and then multiply that by 4 or 5 well-meaning friends and acquaintances who obviously have alot more time on their hands than I do. If I read everything that was sent to me each day and passed it on like instructed so I'll have some stroke of good fortune within the next few minutes, show my loyalty as a friend by not only sending it out to my other friends but by sending it back to the sender and to show my patriotism or support to some organization by keeping the chain alive, I'd have to give up the few hours I sleep each night. Perhaps there lies my problem...if I spent more time keeping the chains and jokes going instead of trashing them, I'd be a millionaire now and not have to work for a living. I'd be able to sleep in til noon each day. I’d have friends who know I love them and there would be no question as to where my allegiance lies!!!

It sounds ridulous when I put it like that, doesn't it? I just find it incredible that people actually pass that crap around without ever thinking about what they're doing. Maybe I'm missing some hidden point and if so, I wish someone would explain it to me because I really don't understand why any intelligent person would forward something like that to all their friends when most people find it to be such an annoying practice. Is this just another one of those delicate subjects that people find difficult to discuss with their friends? You know, like the person who has bad breath or smelly feet and you back up every time they get close to you. You can't believe the person doesn't realize how offensive the odor is and wonder how they can be so blissfully ignorant to something like that. How do you enlighten a person without hurting their feelings? Many times I’ve sent an email to the guilty parties saying things like "I really appreciate being included in the list of people you forward jokes to on a regular basis, but I'd really prefer just to hear how you're doing every now and then instead." Obviously, my email must have been deleted as spam and never opened because the jokes just keep on coming and coming and coming...