The Complete Guide: Chain E-mailHow to find a chain e-mail: The first clue should be a long list of forwarding addresses at the top. However, this is not always present. The dead giveaway are these words, or a variation on them;
". . . send this e-mail to everyone . . ." What usually precedes or follows this is something that plays on your desires, beleifs, emotions, or some combination of them. There are reasons for this. Evolution. For something to evolve, 3 conditions must be met. These are, in the order they will be discussed; agent of change, geometric ratio of increase, and a limiting factor. Agent of ChangeMost e-mail do mutate because of one or more factors. Either a thoughtful person will re-edit an e-mail because it has become garbled (the least likely of the two) or a person will take it as their own and try to make people think that they are smart. Other times, people will try to write their own chain e-mail based on the sucsess of others.Geometric Ratio of IncreaseWhat this basically means is an exponential increase in numbers of e-mails. If I send an e-mail to five freinds, and they each send it to five freinds, there are then 25 e-mails on everyone's computers, or 5x5; 5 squared. This is the pattern that most people try to get their e-mails into. If this pattern is continued for 8 more steps, the total number of new e-mails would equal 9,765,625. After a total of 15 steps in this cycle, given the following example, there would be enough of this e-mail floating around so that everyone on the planet would have a copy.To attain a geometric ratio of increase, the rate of multlipication must be greater than one and the math must involve multliplication. This is the e- mail format's strong suit. With four clicks of my mouse, I can send any e-mail to about 20 people. For purposes of simplicity I will refer to the act of forwarding as reproduction and the time an e-mail spends on your computer as it's life. Limiting FactorIf any e-mail could truly have a geometric ratio of increase, everyone in the world would have it. There are, however things that keep e-mails from having geometric increase. For one thing, I might not feel that the e-mail is something that my freinds would enjoy or appreciate, and not send it to anyone. This keeps reproduction down and forces the e-mails to be the best that they can be in order to compete with their peers. In addition, the longer I wait, the less likely it is that I will send the e-mail out to anyone.TrendsThe chain e-mail is a parasite. The optomistic would call it a co-dependent organism. It needs us to give it an environment (cyberspace) and to help it reproduce (by forwarding it). They leech off of our emotions and waste our space. I was once forwarded an email that took up over 200K of space on my Hotmail account. They need us, but we sure as hell don't need them. But I divigate. What happens is that there are several types of e-mails that do the best job of reproducing and thus are the most common type that circulate (this is called convergent evolution). The main criteria are that they must capture attention, they must be quick and not labor intensive, and they must also be able to reproduce quickly. Next up: a disection of the common e-mail, communus luki.
This Lotus Totus has been sent to you for good luck from the Anthony Robbins Organization. It has been sent around the world ten times so far.
(In the red area, the message tries to make itself sound important. If I think that it is important and that I am part of some larger plan, then it is more likely that I will send it.)You will receive good luck within four days of relaying this Lotus Totus. Do not keep this message. The Lotus Totus must leave your hands in 6 MINUTES.
Otherwise you will get a very unpleasant surprise. This is
true even if you are superstitious, agnostic, or otherwise faith impaired. (In the green area I am given incentive for sending the e-mail (though that is a major diss with "faith impaired"). All messages have this part. They need some reason for me to send it to all of my freinds. This is how e-mails keep from going extinct. Also, it tells me that if I do not send it in six minutes, it will kill me. This gives me incentive to send it quickly. This is because the more time elapses, the less likely it is that I will send it to anyone.)
ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older,
their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or
sleep all you want.
FOUR. When you say, "I love you", mean it.
FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry", look the person in the eye.
SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.
EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have
dreams don't have much.
NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but
it's the only way to live life completely.
TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.
TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.
THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to
answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"
FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements
involve great risk.
FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect
for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.
EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great
friendship.
NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take
immediate steps to correct it.
TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear
it in your voice.
TWENTY ONE. Spend some time alone.
(Finally, in the blue is the content. Note how it is surrounded by incentive so that I don't forget why I'm going to send it. It dosen't matter what the content is, so long as it is something the reader finds entertaining or uplifting.)
Now, here's the FUN part!
Send this to at least 5 people and your life will improve.
There are variations on this strain of e-mail. They almost always call themselves something mystical and try to sound important. Also in this genus are Irish luck charms, one of which I captured for further study. It may be veiwed in my display on this website.
|