I have never partaken of the mystery that is Spam. To be honest, I’m not really sure what it is. I think it’s supposed to be like ham? Anyways, this post has nothing to do with the “edible” spam.
Over the last few days I have received direct messages on twitter from people claiming they were 24/female/hopeful (i censored the last word for all of my junior high readers). These people had their accounts phished and were not sending the messages themselves (at least I hope not).
We are all bombarded with junk snail mail, junk e-mail, annoying ads on facebook, invitations from scary stalker people on twitter, all with their own agendas. It is relentless and frustrating. They are unwanted messages, Spam. I don’t know about you, but it makes me a little cynical. In a way it has trained me to ask, “What do they REALLY want?” or “What are they trying to get me to do?”.
It’s what I call the “Bubble Over Your Head Syndrome”. In other words, “Yes, I hear what you are saying, but I’m trying to read the bubble over your head so I can see what you’re REALLY saying”. I love all of this social networking and new technology. I am a big fan and a big user and…ahem…mildly addicted. However, one thing the social networking craze has allowed us to do is to paint pictures of ourselves that we want others to see that may not line up with who we truly are.
It causes us to ask the question, “Is that who they really are, or is that just who they want me to see”. We unconsciously (and sometimes consciously) ask people to buy into touched up pictures of ourselves, while inwardly we are unknown.
To me, the altered, photoshopped, version of yourself is Spam (an unwanted message).
The real and unedited version of YOU is much more beautiful.
