Anyone that uses the
internet, and has an
e-mail account of any sort, knows that spam e-mail has gotten out of control. It used to be the
innocent pop-ups that would be thrown in the user's face when he/she visited
Tripod or
Geocities -- "
Amazing X2 cam" or "Secrets of the Karma sutra".
Porn sites became increasingly
intrusive and bold.
Then -- it was porn banners and porn pop-ups at every gaming hardware website visited.
The natural progression was to not wait till the user went out on the internet. Rather, bring the filthy content directly to the user -- so as to get direct exposure, and hence more business, right?
Millions of megawatts and thousands of terabytes are consumed by this useless advertisement. It's still considered "cheap" publicity. Since it's such an inexpensive method of getting your name out there, it should be (in theory) perfect advertisement. But when was the last time you can remember buying something from a banner advertisement or an unsolicited e-mail?
There exist fantastic contraptions called "e-mail harvesters". Programs that sift through thousands upon thousands of websites, extracting email addresses from web pages to put into lists to be sold to re-financing agencies or porn sites. I guess the way I feel might be how old-timers felt when they started seeing billboards along-side interstates -- where once there was only greenery and nature.
Now, one might expect anywhere from four to twenty unsolicited advertisements per day.
"Hot virgins want your cock"
"Re-finance today! Interest rates lower than ever!!!"
"New herbal Viagra will make you hard for hours!"
And the real kicker is when they don't make complete sentences or misspell common words:
"Second mortgage is option now."
I'm just waiting for the ultimate offer... I get hundreds of e-mails per week only offering one thing. I'm waiting for that one email that's going to say something like:
"Busty teens want to help you get out of debt today!"
Now there's something I could really use.
Feh, marvelous. The twenty-first century... It's here.