1. Having 1,500 e-mails sitting in my box doesn’t even phase me. Shoot, the blog has over 2,700 but most of those are blog post notifications like hey, you’ve got a comment or check out so-and-so’s new blog post! I just can’t seem to get in there to clean things out on the regular, though, so it stacks up.
2. Nothing seems to fix this. Every once in a while I get a hair out of place so I go through and hit unsubscribe for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. A massive message dump. That’ll solve it, right?
3. Nope. The next day I’ve got a whole new batch of marketing blitz – Birch Lane, TOMS, Under Armour, Sperry, Kendra Scott, Bombas, American Eagle, CVS, Crate and Barrel, thredup. Everybody’s got something to peddle and trying to escape their list is like trying to get rid of ants while your kid wanders around dropping cookie crumbs.
4. Food comes calling a lot, too. Moe’s, Chipotle, Chic-fil-a – well, those make sense. Find Me Gluten Free and Harris Teeter – I guess those are useful. But Buffalo Wild Wings? Yeah, that one makes no sense.
5. Netflix should feel free to stop notifying me when they’ve added a tv show I might like. I don’t need binge temptation slapping me in my inbox.
6. Then there are e-mails I dislike but flat out feel bad hating. Like the American Red Cross. What kind of person hates the Red Cross? The kind who gets HEY YOU, GIVE US BLOOD messages four weeks after donating.
7. Some of those e-mails are news updates. “Good Morning from CNN” blasts in daily – that seemed like a good idea when I signed up but these days I’ve got news pouring into my brain nonstop. It’s not like I’m gonna miss some major event with notifications pinging my phone right and left.
8. These look pretty random but it isn’t even the stuff that lands in my junk folder. Check that one out and you’ll find YouTube, Pinterest, PayPal, and Camping World RV (huh?) hanging out. But the one I’m really wondering about is the pitch that dropped into an old e-mail address from eharmony. How on earth did they get my info?
9. Lucky me, I’ve even been offered a free 30-day trial of oxygen. The graphic proudly shouts, “Reclaim Your Freedom! Oxygen. Anytime. Anywhere.” Umm…okay? Don’t I already have this?
10. I’ll admit it, my gmail isn’t for the faint of heart. BrightSide’s learned not to look – he says it gives him palpitations to see that many messages sitting there, waiting. Just one more way we rock the yin and yang.
Doesn’t top the “free oxygen trial”, but it’s always good to wake up to a 30-deep reply-to-all thread all saying “please remove me from this thread” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right?! Because EVERYBODY agrees the thread is trash and doesn’t want to be on it. 😆
LikeLike
That oxygen bit made me cackle!!! My Respiratory Therapist friend would not laugh, but I cackled!
I have one email I actually read, and it is my WP address, the spam crap is in Yahoo, like it’s 1999 and if I WANT a thing, I go there and search. Then there’s my ‘professional’ email and of course, I have work email at work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So glad I’m not the only one with an irreverent sense of humor. I know the oxygen bit was wrong but omg it made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
Joey, no judgement, but I am flummoxed that you can operate in the world without a personal e-mail address. FLUMMOXED. Like, what do you give your kids’ school? Well, I know you homeschool, but if they did sports or scouts or something? Or the e-mail where you & a bestie send ridiculously inappropriate e-mails to one another. It’s like I’ve stumbled into a foreign land. 😆😆😆
LikeLike
I DON’T homeschool ??? The school has my WP email and I don’t email friends and family much at all, but when I do it’s also WP.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Man, now I’m gonna spend the next hour trying to figure out who I’ve mixed you up with… I won’t lie, though, this makes me feel a little better cuz you’re awesome and funny and I thought you were pulling all that off WHILE SCHOOLING YOUR CHILDREN and that was intimidating as hell. 😆
WP is pulling triple duty for you. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hah! Yes. I did homeschool our eldest daughter for kindergarten in 2001, but that’s because of buses (and I DID have a license and experience, sooo…) but no way I could do it past 5th or 6th grade, because MATH, ick!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is a very noisy world. Until we go deaf for one reason or another. Oblivious can be a good thing…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not a stranger to selective obliviousness (is that even a word?)…but that might be what got me into this e-mail jam in the first place. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
My least favourite emails are the scams. Where they try and look like legitimate companies with the links for you to click on to check something on your account. I’ve been getting so many of these lately. I never click on links in emails, but these are time consuming because I often feel I have to go to my such-n-such account and check if things are in order. Grrrr!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is such a downside to increased tech in our lives. I love the convenience of online account access and bill pay and such but you’re right, it takes vigilance to protect my data. I agree, Grrrr!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get tons of email, but I’d go crazy with that many unread. I just couldn’t handle it. I’m feeling bad because I’m still catching up from Sunday’s email.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think the trick is to set aside a time for e-mail every day. I’ve been hitting it when I get some spare minutes but those are few and far between these days. I cleared the blog e-mail backlog today — now I’ve just got to buckle down on my private one. Eek!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was working on a programming project at work yesterday. Those are hard to get back to after interruptions, so I ignored email for three hours – 123 new emails! I deleted 122 of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. I started last night and it’s pretty humbling to realize only one in fifty e-mails is actually important. I’m way less important than those mailbox numbers imply! 😆
LikeLiked by 1 person
A few times now I’ve thrown up my hands (figuratively) and just closed the email and created a new one. This Spring I had to do that because my old one got hacked (although why someone wanted to look at LDS church news and a buncha spam is beyond me)…maybe they thought there was money somewhere…but in the email? Yeah, I’m old but I’m not dim-witted. That’s what I would advise though, closing it, when the spam outweighs any useful content. And for stress relief too. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Don’t think I haven’t considered it…the thought of notifying everything linked to the e-mail if intimidating and always keeps me in place. We’ll see if (when?) I finally hit that limit.
LikeLike
I can’t tolerate a build-up in my email inbox – so I go through it everyday – deleting, reading, unsubscribing, saving things like confirmations of orders until they arrive – and where do some of those darned emails come from anyway? What gave anyone the idea I’m in the market for cannabis? CBD oil maybe – but not the full-blown stuff. Too old for that nonsense.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, the miracle of the world wide web — bwahahahaha!!! I did a massive blog e-mail sweep today and the number’s down to 17. SEVENTEEN! Now on to the personal one…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I try to unsubscribe but they still keep on coming. But I have unsubscribed to all WP emails except new followers. I do a daily clean and then empty my inbox.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I aspire to this kind of discipline. Maybe this will motivate me to rework my settings. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You only have to do it once. Thank you are set up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get lots of retirement seminar emails, I must look ready !
LikeLiked by 1 person
AARP keeps sending me mailers! I’ve been getting them since I turned 40, I think — did they change retirement age when I wasn’t looking?!
LikeLike
Made me chuckle. That’s my email box but with a British slant. The common one is Under Armour – apparently I can look like the Rock if I buy some trainers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes. The theory is if we all *look* like the Rock we’ll all *feel* like the Rock. I just feel like a muffin top wannabe & nobody needs that negativity in life. 😆😆
LikeLiked by 1 person