Saturday, April 08, 2006

Apparently after witnessing what a Forward Button could do, imagining the devastation it could cause if it fell into the wrong hands, one of its creators quoted a remembered fragment from the Bhagavad Gita. ‘I am become Death,’ he said, ‘the destroyer of worlds.’ Another one was reported to have said, ‘Now we’re all sons of bitches.’
(Or was that the people that made the atomic bomb? No I’m pretty sure it was the Forward Button.)

Oh the Forward Button, the bane of my life. Of course not all forwarded emails are bad. It’s nice for example when people send you things that they think you might enjoy like some of the things that a friend of my mother-in-law's sends me sometimes (pictures of tiny cute babies for example, made out of marzipan or an article about herbal remedies) or something I received from another friend just last week which I enjoyed very much; a clip with Shohreh Aghdashloo in Will and Grace.
However I find that most people these days abuse the power that has been put in their hands by arming them with a Forward Button. I’m talking about those people that forward any old rubbish that is emailed to them to everyone in their address book.
The interesting thing is that some of these people count forwarding all this junk around as emailing and even get a bit funny when you don’t reply to them and sulkily say things like, ‘Well you never write.’
In my opinion I’m actually doing our relationship a world of good by keeping my mouth shut and refraining from replying with my true feelings about every kitten picture, any dodgy article that has the tiniest reference to Iran in it or all those chain letters that they send me, but in their opinion they have sent me five emails a day for the past god-knows-how-long and deserve many replies, an award for the best emailer of the year and possibly a standing ovation.

Is it not time do you think that before giving any old emailing so and so a forward button, they were first made to pass a little test? Maybe a little something like this:

Question number 1- You receive an email that contains twenty close-up photos of different flowers, do you
a. Without thinking, forward it to everyone in your address book
b. Think about who in your address book would really love to see twenty close-up photos of different flowers and only send it to them
c. Destroy the email on the spot

Question number 2- You receive an email which contains a boring ten minute slide show with pictures of sunrises and sunsets with a cheesy peacy lovy message stuck on each slide with the last one being something like, ‘Send this to ten people and you will have good luck for ten days, fail to send this to ten people and something nasty will happen to you in the next ten days’ do you
a. Think you could do with some good luck and straightaway forward it to everyone in your address book, hoping that the more people you send it to, the more good luck will come your way
b. Hate getting these kinds of emails and never know what to do with them. You think you are an intelligent person and don’t believe in this sort of thing but you still hesitate before deleting the email because if you’re really honest with yourself, you are kind of scared. Meanwhile your phone rings, you get up to answer it; you trip on the carpet and nearly break your neck. Thinking the bad luck must have started, you run back to your computer and forward the email to ten people in your address book but in the subject box you write ‘So sorry about this but I can really do with some good luck at the moment’ followed by a winking smiley ;-) or a few of these ‘!’
c. Destroy the email on the spot

Question number 3- A travelling friend emails you some pictures from his or her travels, do you
a. Straightaway forward it to everyone in your address book that knows this person
b. Forward it to everyone in your address book that knows this person but before doing that you will take a look at the list of recipients so at least you won’t send the pictures to the people who have already received them once
c. You take a look at the pictures but won’t forward them to anyone else thinking that maybe your friend wanted only you and the other people that he or she sent that email to, to see those pictures

Question number 4- You receive a forwarded email the first line of which is ‘This may sound like a scam but it definitely isn’t! Do not delete or you will be sorry that you did!’ Do you
a. Read the rest of the email which is something along these lines, ‘This is not a scam! My friend did this and a week later she woke up to find that she had become Katherine Zeta Jones. She divorced Michael Douglas, married Brad Pitt and lived happily ever after. Another friend deleted this email. He woke up one morning from unsettling dreams and found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was lying on his back as hard as armour plate, and when he lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover, about to slide off completely, could barely cling. His many legs pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes. ‘What's happened to me?’ he thought. IT WAS NO DREAM.
The more people you send this email to, the higher your chances of something great happening to you will be. Good luck!’ and forward it to as many people as you can
b. Read the email. Realise it’s another stupid chain letter. Think about deleting it but you just can’t get the thought of becoming a vermin out of your head so you send it to a few people with a little note that says ‘Sorry about this but as you know I have enough on my plate at the moment without having to worry about becoming a vermin ;-)’
c. Delete the email after reading the first line ‘This may sound like a scam but it definitely isn’t!’

Yes, I know a lot of weirdoes.

12 comments:

Em said...

Ola

Honestly Im guilty sumtimes in terms of forwarding mails..but i dunt do it often only when the bug hits me

heheh

The Spring Breeze said...

I am soooooooo with you on the forwarded emails, some people haven't send me anything but forwarded emails in years and now the moment I receive an email from on of them, I just, instinctively of course, delete it without even opening it!

GazanKhan said...

First: I suggest you send this to all people in your address book, I mean it.
Second: it was both logical and very funny. specially that KAFKA part that really scared me, it reminded me of that poor sails man; and the flowers too, and those little babies, all of them.
And last: My dear Shirin, I don't know why but I have a feeling that your dad when sees this will be really proud of you. I guess you are my friend such a HALAALZAADEH!

Shirin said...

Em my friend, that’s no excuse. You mustn’t give in to the bug ;-)

I do that too sometimes The Spring breeze, and then I think but what if they had actually written something for me this time, so I go and get it out of the Trash Can and I see that it’s just another piece of junk :-|

Do you think he’ll be proud then Gazankhan? :-) That’s great.

I’ve tried that too Dodo, not in so many word though because I don’t want to offend them but yes it’s never worked for me either.

Anonymous said...

Reading your funny and wise and necessary post and then reading the comments, except one, make me think of the Gospel and the pearls and that poor creature I don't like to name here.
I think if you had just said that you don't like those e-mails they would comment exactly like now.
Another fine article, you are Ok Shirin.Thanks.

onna said...

Hillarious! It's funny because it's true (trademark Karen of Will & Grace)... and isn't there a saying about how common sense is anything but common? I mean, come on, some of these are no brainers.

jarvenpa said...

Ah yes. The Forward Button. I delete these things on sight, usually, and then get sad notes from friends wondering why I didn't respond to the cute puppy photos.
Though, when I look at them, and the huge list of email addresses of people I don't know--I wonder. How come my friends with puppy photos and emails that will make me rich and famous know all these people I've never heard of? Are they living secret lives??

Anonymous said...

Steady now! For who is this post written? If for the readers of the blog, they seem all right with it (not the forwarding type), if for those who are not readers of the blog, then they are not readers of the blog. You know what, my nicest freind, you could have saved your time and ours by just saying: think twice before forwarding any (chain) mail which comes your way.
Wow! so many many questions to ask before forwarding!!

Anonymous said...

I'm the [Anonymous one]. This second Anonymous is the exact case of what I was saying: vasting pearls on P...s, as our lord Jesus used to say.Pity isn't it? I think she is one of them herself, one of those dogs and flower forwarders!!

Anonymous said...

And the her logic is really flawless!! I suggest you send her a copy of that book you ilustrated, "Logic and hering"(?) on me,kidding, she needs it badly.
NO. one again.

Shirin said...

Thanks Anonymous #1. Unfortunately I don’t know much about the gospel though and I have no idea what the story with the pearls and that poor creature is. I think I might ask my father about it tomorrow when I fly back home. He knows about this sort of stuff.

Hi Pomme :-) yes common sense really is anything but common.

That’s so funny Jarvenpa, only a couple of weeks ago I received one of these emails from a friend and it had been sent to about a hundred people I think! It really was unbelievable. I spent a lot longer studying that list of email addresses than I spent on those pictures of flowers that she had sent me.

Anonymous #2, I apologize to you for wasting your precious time by making you read this blog. I can understand why you are upset about this. I would be too. One minute you’re having a laugh surfing the net, the next minute you are in someone’s blog being forced to read a post about forwards! It must have been horrid.
Now about what you thought I should have written i.e. ‘Think twice before forwarding any (chain) mail which comes your way.’ I only have two words to say to you my friend: Pure Genius. It’s not only short and sweet, but it makes a fascinating read as well ‘Think twice before forwarding any (chain) mail which comes your way.’ See what I mean? I just can’t get enough of reading it. It’s just divine and so rich on so many levels. If you don’t have a blog already, I urge you to get one as soon as possible and write these wonderful words of wisdom in there so everyone can enjoy them. It’s just sad to see them go to waste like this.

Anonymous said...

heee heeee. I love 2b. I would done 2c though. I am starting to wonder if my lack of forwarding/ chain sending (? not sure this works anonymous 2) emails may be the cause of a run of bad luck I had last year. Ummm? I'm off to find a selection of photos of flower pots, teddy bears, and small fluffy animals to send to everyone who reads this blog.....