Chain mails

[satyeshwar]

I have been thinking about this chain mail stuff for quite some time now. People forward chain mails without giving it a thought but I wonder if they really get anything out of it.
Here's how it works, you get a chain mail that says the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi or even Jesus started this letter and this is really really true!! (I didn't know they had internet in Jesus' time!) Anyways, just answer these 40 questions and you will get a "nice" surprise at the end. It makes some general predictions about your personality (which could be true for just about anyone) and then asks you to send it to at least 10 of your friends in the next 1 minute. Oh and by the way, if you don't send it, you will get hit by a truck and even if you survive that, black ninjas of the 10th dynasty are going to come to stick needles in your flesh! Yikes!! You better get moving on forwarding that email.

Or how about that ubiquitous chain letter, Bill Gates is watching this email and for every person you send it to, you will get 1000 dollars! Hmm, I never got anything, I knew that Bill guy was a crook! He stole my money!!!! :(

Or maybe that poor 5 year old girl without hands and legs living in BurchManistan is going to get 5 cents every time you forward this letter so pleaseeeee in god's name forward it to someone, or you will be a heartless beast burning in hell forever!

So, what does everyone think about these chain letters? Do you forward them yourself? If so, why (there may be some valid reasons)?

[Samarkadian]

Very Nice start Satya.Since the web of internet started, the saga of chain mails started and many of them got very famous.They may be categorised in many forms ; from social movemnts like of reservation to justice for jessica lal,
social awareness regarding frustation of some AIDS victims to infect others with a pin in crowded places,plea regarding help of needy,and some life changing instances of people.I feel demand of modern world enforces a person to work continously and when he comes across such email he feels amid his responsblities , fwding email to others can bring him/her a peace regarding regarding social responsiblities.This is a way of ventilation and a craving to be attached with noble causes.

Other mail regarding leisure of life,photography, miracles claims seems all crap to me, though initially person try to send them but in real that dont work, and when this realization comes, he /she even dnt care to open such mails rather feel free after cliking delete button.I dnt open fwd mail except those who are related to some social cause.Rest all depends on taste and craze for new things.

[neels]

In the beginning, sometimes I also forwarded when I received such mails. I remember sending this Bill Gates/Microsoft one, and a Prayer(thou it had no cursing thing attached to it). I never fwded any curse mail , that goes st. to the trash can. Now also I fwd if I receive some interesting mail,, bt nt the chain type mails.
Hmmm .... this Bill one I also fwd Day-dreaming to be rich, like Bill Gates....;) :p:cool: :D ... but yu are right, he's a big crook, cheated on my dollars also..:( .

Well I think, the mentality behind forwarding these curse mails goes back to the anecdotes we grow up listening related to our religious faith. Human beings are so afraid of this unknown supreme power and all the ills it can precipitate, that they do anything without giving it a second thought to avoid any adversity n curse upon their lifes. Now the electronic media is there, so the E-mails. I remember from childhood, similar nature letters on Inlands used to come in mail that time also. But as that demanded some money n effort to be spent in forwarding those, so they rested in the bins. now e-mailing needs just a click to fwd it to all the addresses in the adress book, People dont mind fwding it to avoid any curse, if it can be. They dont even try to think for a second how irrational it is!!!
It all roots to the human psyche of doing anything to seek gain, and doing everything to avoid pain.

[yatinder19]

Chain mails are usually I feel silly stuff...