Why is spam so annoying?

Today, while people are sharing the high efficiency brought by informatization, they are also being impacted and troubled by the increasingly serious torrent of information garbage.

The development of information technology, on the one hand, continues to change people's lifestyles, but on the other hand, it also increases people's high dependence on it. When people feel its negative effects and try to get rid of it, they find that information has become an indispensable part of people's lives. Domestic garbage has side effects on people's survival, so we have to deal with it. Information garbage is also not good for people. The simplest thing is that you have to spend time and energy to sort out the junk mail and then delete it. To make things more complicated, some intentional waste may cost you a lot of time and money, and this waste is a loss of efficiency for both individuals and society. For example, a certain person received an email saying that he won a grand prize of 5,000 yuan and asked him to visit a certain link to confirm. He visited the link, only to see an ad that turned out to be a scam. The person who sent the letter sent the advertising link he applied for to others, and lied that the other party needed confirmation for winning the award, so as to increase the number of visits and earn income - it was really painful for the deceived people, who were not only happy but also paid more for Internet access. fee. As for some pornographic pictures and texts, they are even more harmful to the mental health of people, especially teenagers.

Information junk does not only appear in emails. In the information society, information junk is almost everywhere. Computer typesetting technology has greatly developed the publishing industry, so all kinds of text garbage are blooming everywhere: I just said that paperless office saves paper, and then I see newspapers and magazines continue to expand their editions, and more garbage appears out of thin air; a message is often displayed on the TV after logging in to the Internet. It was broadcast again, TV broadcast it, newspapers and periodicals published it, newspapers and periodicals published it and the Internet reprinted it, endlessly. We advocate that people should be environmentally aware and not litter. In fact, we should also be aware of "environmental protection" when it comes to information carriers and consciously maintain the cleanliness of the media. For example, on the Internet, consciously abide by Internet public ethics. In fact, people really need environmentally friendly websites - unfortunately, many websites are full of garbage as soon as they enter, as if they are in a big garbage dump. Have you ever wondered why we live more tiredly than in the past? That's because we are facing more information pollution than in the past - since entering the network information age, the amount of information garbage produced by each of us is enough to exceed the sum of the words produced by all previous scholars. Why is information garbage so prevalent? The main reason is the low cost of producing information.

In addition to spam that gives even Bill Gates a headache, cookie-cutter websites, annoying text messages, and unpredictable instant messages all together constitute the main body of information garbage in modern society. . Information waste, like domestic waste, is pervasive and ubiquitous, and no one can avoid its pollution. Domestic waste seriously harms human health, while information waste consumes a lot of human time and energy. The four major categories of information junk:

E-mail junk

As an extremely low-cost tool, email has gained rapid popularity in a short period of time. Now many people Each business card has his/her email address printed on it. However, when you open your mailbox every day, you will find that it is full of spam messages such as "Easy to make big money," "Free adult pictures," "Online adult products exclusive," "Congratulations on winning the jackpot."

What’s even more hateful is that in addition to being full of pornography and advertisements, some of these spam emails also carry viruses and Trojans, waiting to damage your computer system; some automatically open browser windows. Taking you to pointless websites. When you angrily delete these spam emails, the really important emails are probably deleted by mistake.

At present, electronic spam has almost become a global disaster. The International Telecommunications Union reports that 80% of the world's email is spam, which costs computer users an estimated $25 billion each year. Every day, more than 10 billion e-mails are spread to every corner of the world regardless of national boundaries, accumulating in people's e-mails, causing panic to mailbox owners and placing a heavy burden on the Internet. Today, whenever you turn on your computer, you have to face the incoming emails. Not only do you have to spend a lot of time screening and filtering out the truly valuable emails buried in the information junk, but you also have to always be on guard against hacker email virus attacks.

But often you have been busy for a long time without discovering anything of real value. This not only consumes a lot of energy, but also wastes the most precious time. Many people have had this experience. Sometimes they really want to ignore those annoying emails, but they are worried about missing really valuable information. In desperation, we can only passively swirl in the vortex of information.

Website garbage

The amount of website information redundancy is very large, the content is severely repeated, and the same information is often copied from one website to another website. No matter which search engine you use, if you search for a piece of information, you can usually find thousands or tens of thousands of related entries. However, if you click on them one by one, you will find that there are only a few or dozens of useful websites. The remaining websites either provide repeated information or have no actual content at all.

But it is impossible for us to know which websites provide useful information and which websites provide useless information, so we have to waste a lot of time browsing spam sites, and the purpose of browsing is just to exclude them. Search engines are an important tool to help people find information on the vast Internet. However, how can they play their due role when dozens of pages of search results are frequently listed, and there are frequent wrong links and invalid links?

Search engines should move away from the misunderstanding of one-sidedly pursuing as much information as possible, improve website retrieval and verification functions, and provide more intelligent search conditions to help users search faster and better. Valuable information was retrieved.

SMS junk

In 2002, the number of text messages sent by mobile phones nationwide exceeded 56 billion. According to relevant expert predictions, the number of text messages sent by mobile phones nationwide in 2003 will exceed 150 billion. How many of these are spam messages? I'm afraid no one can give a specific number, but it is probably certain that this number is definitely not small, because mobile phone users are suffering from frequent harassment of spam text messages.

Spam text messages not only waste time, but also "rob" money. When many mobile phone users get their phone bill list, they often find that there are several additional charges that are unaccounted for. The Internet is full of traps, and users may accidentally activate a certain paid text message service. If you ignore such spam messages after receiving them, which cost a few cents to a few dollars each, it will be regarded as a tacit consent to accept the other party's business, and this fee will continue to appear in the future.

Instant messaging garbage

Friends who like QQ chat often have the experience that when chatting with netizens is in full swing, the advertisements sent by Tencent are always uninteresting. interrupt your conversation.

Users using NT/WIN2000/XP operating systems must have encountered harassment from "messenger services" when surfing the Internet. Most of these information prompts, which are similar to Internet broadcasts, induce readers to browse a certain website (mostly pornographic) or purchase a certain product. A friend of the author made statistics. On the day when his computer was most used (based on 8 hours online), he actually received 35 "Messenger Service" prompts (Note: Under the Management Tools item of the control panel, change the "Service" in the Messenger" to refuse to receive such messages).

One characteristic of instant message spam is that you must check it, otherwise it will keep prompting you until you close it. According to the US "Business Week", instant messaging has become the new favorite of spammers.

The reasons for the generation of information garbage

“Everything in the world is bustling for profit; economic benefits. An email costs only a few cents, a text message costs no more than a dime, and sending an instant message costs next to nothing. Effective use of these methods can not only make money, but also make a lot of money, achieving the special effect of "low investment, high returns". As for websites that only require an investment of a few hundred yuan a year, many people are flocking to them. Although the Internet bubble has burst, using websites to make money has become common sense for all website operators.

Some information junk is also created by some people based on entertainment, entertainment, boredom or prank mentality. Some people have a special interest in a certain aspect and build a website for their own entertainment. Some people read a very funny short message or a very interesting article and send it to their friends to share it.

Some people send false and pornographic information to harass others in order to seek psychopathic satisfaction.

The Dangers of Information Spam

The book "Network Problem Report" points out that on average, corporate employees spend more than an hour a day receiving emails, and 34% of them are All kinds of repetitive information, jokes, advertisements and other useless content take up a lot of time and seriously affect work efficiency.

According to NetEase, spam has five main hazards: (1) Occupying network bandwidth, causing mail server congestion, and reducing the operating efficiency of the entire network. (2) Infringe on the recipient's privacy, occupy the recipient's mailbox space, and consume the recipient's time, energy and money. (3) Used by hackers as a tool to aid evildoers. (4) Seriously affect the service image of ISP. Internationally, hosts that frequently forward spam will be listed in the international spam database by superior international Internet service providers, resulting in the host being unable to access many foreign networks. (5) Misleading people with lies, defrauding people of money, and spreading pornographic content.

Spam websites are often frequent visitors to search engines. Although they will not actively harm you like spam emails, when you open their addresses with great expectations, you will find that in addition to a lot of colorful advertisements and Except for some outdated and repetitive information, I can't find any merit at all, which will definitely make me feel angry. CNNIC's 11th "Statistical Report on China's Internet Development Status" shows that as of December 31, 2002, the number of websites in my country reached 371,000. The number of global websites exceeded 40 million as early as early 2002, and is still expanding at a high speed. Spam websites account for a large part of this.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Italian economist Valledo invented the "Twenty-Eight Law", which believes that the most important of any thing only accounts for a small part, about 20%; the remaining 80% It is the majority, but it occupies a secondary position and is even useless. This law also applies to websites, which means that 80% of the websites we browse are junk. I believe experienced Internet users will agree with this.

As for text message spam and instant message spam (strictly speaking, text messages are also instant messages), they are even more disgusting to people, because the recipients are not only in an absolutely passive position, but also have to respond immediately. Due to technical reasons, it is currently very difficult to block and filter these two types of spam, which causes the greatest trouble. It is conceivable that when your mobile phone and computer constantly "remind" you to participate in a certain activity or purchase a certain product, it is difficult for someone not to be annoyed, but there is nothing you can do about it, because if you turn off your mobile phone You can't communicate with your friends, and you can't work if you turn off your computer.

Methods to manage information waste

It is undeniable that informatization has a dual nature. On the one hand, it gives us channels to obtain important information, but at the same time, it also brings us the trouble of spam information. So, how can people make effective use of information technology while getting rid of the nightmare of information waste?

Currently, Microsoft is taking more technical measures to help people get rid of the burden of information. Although Microsoft's office software - a comprehensive writing, computing, presentation and communication tool, not only reduces people's labor intensity, but also effectively improves work efficiency, and has become the main desktop application for 400 million users around the world. . But the resulting information burden has become increasingly serious, sometimes even reaching unbearable levels. Not long ago, Bill Gates said that Microsoft will come up with better collaboration software and other tools from a technical perspective, such as Microsoft's newly developed integrated communication application, and has begun to try out some new functions. This software will be based on What are you doing, who is looking for you, how urgent is the information they want to send you, etc., and make a judgment on whether you should be disturbed, thereby helping people get rid of the interference and burden caused by the current heavy emails and mobile phone messages. . However, there is still a long way to go before the true convergence of email, phone calls, mobile communications and instant messaging can be achieved. Despite this, people firmly believe that with the advancement and development of new technologies, valuable information will be utilized by humans to the maximum extent, and the junk information that bothers people will eventually be controlled, filtered, and even completely eliminated.

In addition to resorting to technical means, many countries have also formulated corresponding laws and regulations, trying to severely crack down on the proliferation of spam through legal means, and standardize advertising in various media to eliminate the impact of spam on people's normal lives. Disturbances and influences on life. The United States, Japan, Canada, Spain, Australia and other countries have all formulated or are in the process of formulating their own anti-spam laws. Australia was the first in the world to enact the Anti-Spam Law in 2003. Starting from April 2004, any company or individual who sends e-spam from Australia will be severely punished by law once caught. Prior to this, some states in the United States and the European Union also enacted similar laws, but they were not enacted in the name of a country. By elevating anti-spam in the name of the country to the level of legislation and confirming it, and using legal weapons to strengthen its crackdown and sanctions, Australia is undoubtedly ahead of the world, so it has attracted the attention of governments around the world.

The proliferation of spam information has made more and more countries realize the necessity and urgency of formulating corresponding laws, and further accelerated the legislative process in order to use legal means to deal with the current situation of the proliferation of information spam in their countries. Adjustment and control are also an effective means to help people get rid of the nightmare of information junk.