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Have you ever received a chain letter? Perhaps an even better question is – who writes those things?
For those that live on the 10th planet, a chain letter is an e-mail that’s arbitrarily sent out threatening recipients that something dire will happen if they don’t resend it to a specified number of people within a specified time frame.
Here’s a classic example:
If you do not send this out to at least 20 people within the next 15 minutes, you will wake up with a missing limb and your pet will be dead.
They’re pretty nasty things, those chain letters. Trust me, I know, I’ve read my fair share of them. I’ve also never sent them out upon receipt. Not once. Because I think they’re vile.
The kicker for me is not so much the people who write them; I already know they’re nuts and perhaps a little bit disturbed. They are probably single and living in the basement of their parents’ house too. But what really gets me is the halfway sane people who upon receiving them keep the chain going…
Considering some people do send them out again, I have to believe there is a part of them that actually believes there is truth to the letter: that it’s a form of prophecy. As such, they also have to recognize that when they send it out, carrying on the chain, many if not most of the recipients won’t keep the chain going like they have opted to and therefore will fall victim to the consequences. In other words: Those resending chain letters are consciously smiting innocents and wrecking other people’s love lives. At least, they believe they are. And they do so fully cognizant of this knowledge. Of course, as long as they’ve precluded their own downfall, it doesn’t much matter what happens to the others… now does it.
Is that not sick?
We at Pun Intended – me and my brother Flying LlamaFish – have a guarantee to all our lovely readers out there: we will never partake in the dissemination of chain letters.
Because, we’re not sick like that.
What about you? Have you ever received a chain letter? Have you ever sent one out upon receipt?
I won’t even ask if you’ve ever compiled one and started the chain of death… because we don’t have readers like that.
Ugh… I know what you mean. I get a lot of those kind that tell you to send to a number of people because something good will happen to you after you do it, or a new flower will be added to the vase for each person you send it to… stuff like that. Hmm, maybe that’s why my life has been so difficult lately. Maybe I should start sending them… I think not!
Yes, I get them, but usually just from family.
No, I don’t send them out.
You would think they would know that, since they never get any of them from me, not even the ones who say to send it to x friends, including the one that sent it to you.
Oh, well.
Hi Bamboo: When my mother first got an e-mail account a couple of years back she kept forwarding me chain letters. I had to ask her to stop. Don’t worry, you’ll never get a chain letter from me.
@ Davina: Heh… “New flower will be added to the vase.” I’d like to see a chain letter pull that one off. Or maybe I wouldn’t…
@ Mike: Heh… Good observation.
@ Marelisa: Good to hear.
I have received chain letters via email.
I ignore them.
I haven’t kept close statistics on the chain letters that grace my inbox…. However, I’m especially fond of the ones that say they were started by famous people, and 99% of those, according to snopes.com, are completely false… and at least 99% of that 99% are forwarded from my mother in law. No joke.
@ Vered: That’s what I do too. Wise choice.
@ Ryan: Heh.
99% of the time, I don’t bother to send those that I received. I only sent the odd one or two if the messages they contain are good and helps to make a meaningful impact. Even then, I don’t mass mail to more than 10 persons. I don’t want my friends to blacklist me!
@ Evelyn: The ones that have a positive message at least have that.
“the chain of death” — I like the way you put that! My irritation comes from people thinking they can control my actions with such “predictions!”
If a letter has good info or a great story, I will verify it with Snopes, then edit out the “upon pain of death and dismemberment” part and send just the benign part.
@ SpaceAgeSage: That sounds like a reasonable way to go about it.
I want a chain award: you know those cute pictures that some gets that urges them to pass it on to two or ten people?!
You could award me: best commentor and link to me forever!
I receive these chain letters every day. At first, I would forward it back to the “if I’m your friends, please forward to me”, but it didn’t stop there, I ended up receiving it back again.
Now, I just go ahead and delete them. Great post, Bamboo!
@ Steven: No chain awards are being given at the current time. Thanks for your interest, though.
@ BC Doan: Thank you. Deleting them is probably wise.