Tuesday, December 30, 2008

All that Glitters is NOT Spam.

We live in an age of style.
Glossy, lustrous and slick magazines, newspapers, and Pamphlets,
Sweet innocent voices selling everything from ring tones to Washing Machines.
Naive kids vying for our attention in the form of ads.



We also live through a plethora of spam, from unsolicited sms's to shining emails. From slick pamphlets to unsolicited calls.

Due to easier and cheaper communication channels today the amount of spam has increased much more than the real content. Hence, at no point in history has the ability to separate the grain from the chaff been more important or more difficult.

I see people rejecting pamphlets or emails without a first glance simply because of their high style quotient. This often deprives them of good deals and offers.

If one directly dives into the content, its easy to separate the content from the medium. Thus do not reject anything outright, give every email/sms/pamphlet atleast 30 seconds. You will be surprised that's just how long it takes to separate important communication from the spam.

If you are wondering as to why The calling cards are spam and the laptop deal is not, you have grasped the logic behind the post. I.e what is spam to you could be useful for me, and vice-versa.

So go ahead and avoid those glittery mails at your own peril..

Was Newton actively researching Gravity when the apple fell or was Columbus looking for a new continent when he found the Americas ?

3 comments:

Preetam said...

Hey good point as most of us now delete spams without even bothering.. will follow ur advice from here on..

Sreeram Ramachandran said...

The title may be true (some glittery stuff is not spam), but your arguments are specious.

Why do you assume that my ability to reject spam is flawed? Indeed, why do you assume that a good "deal" is not spam to me? Perhaps I don't care for good deals. Or, perhaps I don't care for some types of good deals (such as laptops). Those would still be spam to me. In fact, it is not at all clear why, in your example, the laptop deal is not spam, whereas the calling card deal is spam.

Also, the speed with which I reject spam is not an issue. To me, unsolicited advertising is spam. I don't care how good the "deal" is. I didn't ask for it. I don't need it now. When I need a deal, I'll go looking for it, thank you. So, there's no reason why I should spend even one second looking at it. To wit, Gmail filters out all unsolicited advertising for me, regardless of how good the deals are, and that's perfectly fine spam filtering for me.

Lastly, since we are talking about style, a tip for future posts: Cut out the hyperbole ("at no point in history has [it] ... been more important" and "the glossier the finish the easier it is"). Those are wildly unsubstantiated claims.

abhi said...

Hey Sreeram, Thanks for the Style guidance.
Actually you have hit the nail on the head when you have asked why x is spam and y is not.
Thats the exact point illustrated, what is spam to me is useful for you(Eg. the calling cards..) and vice versa.

I can not even count the number of times accidentally reading or talking about something has led to major breakthroughs..

Not to say that you that everything should be left to chance but sometimes the best stuff happens when you are not actively expecting it.