The other day I opened my email and saw the following subject line:
How was the Picture Quality of "Rescue Me: Season 2: "Bitch"?"
My first reaction was, not too bad A**Hole! My second reaction was to forward it to my friends with a witty comment (or something that might pass for one, anyway). I often wonder about the thought process that goes into forwarding emails to friends, family, and other people you hardly know. It's one thing to have a bit of useful information (such as avoid this scam, or vote on Tuesday), but most of what gets forwarded these days is some form of humor.
Humor is subjective. That it is, is fact. People don't even find the same things funny in the same way. A pratfall to one person is funny because the person fell and to another because of the way the actor reacted to it. Perhaps it is even funny because the first person liked to see people fall and the second person was feeling the humor of the embarrassing situation that the actor was in. So this makes me curious as to why people forward items to other people. True, they may be thinking "I thought this was funny and I think you will as well."; but most people simply don't think that much about it. I do.
I don't have one group list that I send funny emails to. Every time I forward an email I hand-pick the recipients based on whether I think they would appreciate it and whether I think they have the time to deal with my email in the midst of all the others they might be getting. Sometimes, I think the funny bit is worth it. Other times, it only gets sent to a couple of my die-hard forward-loving friends.
I want to clear up what may be a developing notion right now - that is, that I am somehow better or should be praised for the method I use. Actually, the opposite may be true; in that, I am making a judgment every time about what I think my friends and family would appreciate. It's one thing to brush aside an email from someone you know forwards everything to everyone. C'mon, we ALL have one of those on our friends/family list. You know the one, he or she warns you about the gang who drives around with their headlights off so that they can kill you after you flash your lights at them. Yeah, you know who it is immediately, don't you? Anyway, we can easily flag those emails and not read them if we don't have time or skim through them to see how lame they truly are. But, when someone who only carefully sends forwarded emails to you shows up in your inbox, you tend to take the time to read it (unless, unbeknownst to them, THEY are that forwarding monster on your friends/family list -- a fact I sheepishly admit may apply to me). So, does that mean you are wasting their time EVEN MORE? Perhaps it does.
The bottom line, in a post that I'm sure no one will read, is that no matter how careful you think you are in sending your emails, someone may take it the wrong way. Isn't that right Netflix?
