people who don't like cute forwards

from an email i recieved:

If I have bothered you with my funny and cute forwards, please tell me, and don't just stop talking with me. I only send the very best that I receive, I too do not like having my time wasted by stupid forwards so please know that I use my best discretion before passing these along to you. I just felt like saying that because I got an email from of all people my niece. I send them really cute, animal only forwards but she got very angry at me. I don't know her well, so I can't say what caused this. but please if I am bothering you, let me know and I will not send you anymore forwards….This will bring a smile to your face for sure…or at least it brought one to mine, and that isn't very easy to do these days.

[the following is an commentary inspired by the message above. it is derived from, but not explicit to, the sender of the message. ed.]

some people just can't handle "cuteness" i guess. what constitutes a "stupid" forward is very subjective. some people just resent getting cute forwards and "save the ______" messages because they don't get any real, personal mail. you open your mailbox and instead of messages from friends asking about your health and well being, you get pictures of puppies, spam, and list mails. and OMG! they have to expend he energy and oh so precious time to click the checkbox and then click "delete". for some people, the little rush of "awww, that's so cUUUte!" and only be repeated so many times before it becomes dulling and trite, which after a while can be angryvating

there is an infinite supply of cute puppies, babies, kittens, animals of all species. that little emotional charge you get from viewing such pictures over-saturates some people i think. plus you never know how many other people are sending forwards to a person, and yours, however selected and "best-of" they are, just become YADF- YetAnotherDamnForward that is designed to put a hook in my heart, brain or wallet and give a little tug. for some, emotional little tugs like that, those images and messages that will "put a smile on your face" become invasive and controlling, like the happy aunt who is always telling you to "Smile! turn that frown upside down!" but doesn't really care, or ask, why you are not smiling in the first place. when did i make her the watchman of my emotional status at that moment?

when you are drowning in your own crap at the moment, having a shitty day, just got bad news, woke up on the wrong side of the bed, feeling depressed and lonely, the last thing some people want to see is a picture of a cute puppy when they open their mail. so the sender of the puppy picture becomes someone to focus that helpless anger on.

when people send forwards, here's no opt-out, opt-in button. when you sign up for a mailing list, or forget to un-check the box next to "would you like to receive email from us when we have new products/newsletter/advertising/crap" when registering for another website, you asked for it, and the messages usually have an un-subscribe link. with forwards this is missing. it would be nice if the forwarders had a preferences list to screen their email friends with. something like "john, cathy, bob, mary get puppy pictures but no babies and green the earth messages, while sam, eric, lisa get puppy pictures but no 'inspirational messages', etc. hey, that might be an idea for a software tool for forwarders. with just a few tags on a message like "puppies" or "smiley" or "save whales" the tool would forward the message to only those on your list who match the tags. but, gee, that puts a lot more work on the back of the forwarder, they have tag the messages, and categorize recipients to the tag list and, and and.... that's so much more work than hitting "forward" button and auto filling in the list address and clicking send. but wait, it's been done. that's what BLOGS do. you can post messages, pictures of whatever you like, and with most blogsites you can forward an entire email to your blogsite and it will appear there. then you can tell your friends that all your cool stuff is on your blog, and they can go or not go, and they can subscribe to your blog, follow you on twitter, add you to their facebook and myspace pages, create a whole social network on ning for forwards and appeals to save-the-what-evers, add your blog to their RSS reader, digg your site, and maybe it will even show up on technorati, and if you made videos of your puppy/cat/bird/nature forwards, you can post on youtube and point everyone to your vlog and blog... yeah! and everyones mailbox will be a little bit smaller everyday.

and there would be more bandwidth on the internet for spam.

me? i just scan and delete.

i was reading clinical definitions of narcissism the other day. sounds like your roomate. i fell for a women years ago who was a borderline personality- drove ME nuts. i decided to stay away from crazy people they will make you crazy.

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