Spam ruining Internet fun

The online nuisance of unsolicited junk mail – universally known as spam – is driving exasperated people away from the internet.

Internet users routinely receive a barrage of spam in their email.

A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that the problem of spam is taking a huge toll on the Internet users.

At least 25% of those polled by the study said they had stopped using emails simply because they did not like to be flooded by spam.

Spam has triggered a credibility crisis as well.

Many of the respondents feared that important email would be lost in the clutter of unwanted spam.

And others did not trust the mails in their inboxes any longer, fearing that a spammer could usurp email addresses of friends and family to disguise their spam.

Unpleasant

Worse still, a whopping 70% of email users said spam was making their online experience unpleasant.

“What this is signalling to us is that there’s a change in the whole Internet experience going on here – a degrading of the experience. Spam is hurting email and it is eroding people’s trust in email and the Internet,” Deb Fallows of the Pew Internet Project said.

“Over half of the users told us they were losing their trust in email because of spam,” he said.

The fascinating study throwing up alarming insights into the world of Internet users, covered 1300 respondents over the age of 18.

At least 25% of those polled by the study said they had stopped using emails simply because they did not like to be flooded by spam

Its findings could strengthen the hands of lawmakers, technology companies and litigators seeking to curb the menace of spam.

Difficult Cure

But to halt the avalanche of unsolicited mail could still prove to be difficult.

Spam is viewed differently by different users and to find a common solution may not be easy.

For example, 92% considered emails from an unknown sender a spam, while 32% said that unsolicited commercial email from a sender they had already done business with was spam.

And 11% of the respondents said that if a person had granted a company permission to send them email, they believed that mail to be spam too.

But the silver lining is many internet users are learning to take the nuisance of spam in their strides.

It is annoying but tolerated. And most are content deleting the spam rather than give up using their email.

Source: News Agencies