by Peggy Robin
People ask me how I’m spending my free time during the
coronavirus lockdown. I will tell you: what little free time I have is taken up
with the task of un-subscribing from all the email blasts I never signed up to
receive. This activity feels like it’s become a new part-time job. You know I’m
spending all day on my computer anyway, now that the listserv is running at
double-time, due to the coronoavirus pandemic, but on top of the daily torrent
of listserv submissions, there’s a daily deluge of messages urgently seeking my support for everyone everywhere in need.
Let me be clear: I’m not talking about spam. I’m talking
about worthy, often wonderful organizations that I wholeheartedly support.
These are organizations that are feeding people after hurricanes, and are doing
so here and now, for people who’ve lost their jobs due to coronavirus. They’re working
for political equality, or trying to free reporters locked up abroad, or they
want to end voter suppression or reverse the injustices of mass incarceration. Dear
Peggy, they write, we need your help at this moment in history. You see, they're all on a
first name basis with me – especially the political candidates. And they think
I’m on a first name basis with them. But I’m feeling less and less friendly, given
all the extra time they're making me spend each day, going delete, delete, delete.
Now I admit, I gave these organizations and candidates
my email address voluntarily, usually when I contributed a bit of money. So I can’t say
that I never wanted them to contact me. Just not every single day of the
year. And some of them do it two or three times a day, every day. And when I get up in the morning, I see more's come in overnight. They never sleep.
When I realize I’m spending too much time per day deleting
the same email from the same organization, that’s when finally hit the unsubscribe
link. You might think this would take all of five seconds. But no. You have to scroll
down, down, down, to the very end of the long pitch letter, and then find the
teeny-tiny type that says “unsubscribe.” You click it, but you’re still not
done. You may need to figure out which of your several email addresses is the
one they’ve got you under, and confirm that’s the one you want taken off their
list. Before they let you go, they may
badger you to answer some questions, tell them why you want out.
The really
insidious trick is to offer to send you less email. I’ve fallen for that one
any number of times. They say they’ll cut way back, and I believe them, and so
I don’t quit entirely. Then, for the next few days, maybe even a few weeks, the
flood goes down to a trickle. Maybe just one a week. That’s OK, I can live with
that. But it never stays that way. I put it out of my mind for a time, and so I don’t
notice that it's slowly, slowly creeping back up again. The day comes around when I’m
deleted a bunch of emails, and I think to myself, haven’t I unsubscribed from
this list already? Or maybe I asked them to cut back? I can't remember, and I'm not keeping records to check. That would be even more time-consuming
than going through the unsubscribe process again. So I find myself clicking the unsubscribe link again, for
the same organization.
On top of all this, unsubscribing doesn’t always work. A lot
of the time, the email just keeps coming. without a break. Or maybe they do unsubscribe me for a short time, and then they buy the maling list from a similar organization, and there's my email address again.
I already know what advice I will get from my wise readers out
there. Don’t give them your real email address, you goose! Use a disposable email address -- get yourself a whole slew of them that you can create on the fly, each time you donate to
an organization or support a candidate. Yes, I’ve heard that advice many
times. But the thing is, when I first give to the organization, I do
want to hear from them. I want an acknowledgement that they’ve received my
donation. I need a tax receipt for the IRS. I do want to know what they’re up
to and learn if they are making a difference. So I don’t want to be totally out
of the loop. I just don’t want to be so in the loop that my inbox is
overflowing, and I'm left feeling that I’ve been thrown for a loop.
Is there a happy medium? I haven’t found it yet, but if
anyone out there has got a working solution that doesn’t involve any of the
following: a) disposable email addresses; b) never giving any money to any
charities, cause organizations or candidates for office; or c) going off to live in a
cave somewhere far off the grid – by all means email me. I won't delete your message!
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