A passion for some, a headache for many, we dare you to find a single Internet/cellphone user who has been left untouched by the forward phenomenon. How does the world of the forward sender look? Does he spend the greater part of his time reading and sending forwards? Does he press the forward button within seconds of receiving a joke on email or SMS? Does he passionately scour the Internet for interesting nuggets to send to his friends? When he meets his friends in person does he know how to hold a normal conversation?

The biggest surprise of all is that forward senders are normal people lurking in our midst, forming friendships, studying, going out and even holding down jobs — a point to be wondered over, given the large number of man-hours that must be lost to keep the flow of forwards uninterrupted.

Vivek Chatterjee, 29, is a Denver-based PR professional who sends “at least 10” forwards everyday. Vivek has been in the “mail-forwarding business” — as he likes to call it — for five years now. “Ranging from jokes to socially relevant information to mails on job opportunities, all my forwards have a purpose. And I just don’t send forwards blindly. I pick and choose and send them to people who I know will appreciate them,” points out Vivek. Sending forwards is also serious stuff for company executive S. Jayaraman who sends a minimum of two-three forwards every day. “Besides forwarding what comes into my inbox, I also pick up information from sites and share it,” says Jayaraman.

Relatively easy access to the Internet means that Bangalore-based IT professional Saikat Bhattacharya doesn’t hesitate to send even 15 forwards a day. “Seventy per cent of the forwards I send are from friends, colleagues and acquaintances. The rest originate from me. I think forwards are a great way to share thoughts and information,” he feels.

What happened to talking?

What is alarming is that there are people out there who believe that this ceaseless shunting of mail and texts from one computer to another, one cellphone to another, actually constitutes “keeping in touch”.

“Sending a forward is a simple but effective way to say hello, especially when you are just remembering someone but don’t really have anything more to say,” says copywriter Akanksha Bose.

Why say anything at all, we must ask, if there is so little to share. Yet it is clearly a system that brings satisfaction, at least to the sender. How the receivers feel is a different story altogether.

Media professional Bindi Sarkar sends “good morning” and “good night” forwards to her friends every day. “I talk to them during the day. Sending an SMS forward is just a way of telling my friends that I am thinking of them,” she smiles.

And then there are the people who are bound together by such forwards alone. “A year ago, a person whom I have never even met sent me a forward that was meant for someone else. We now keep in regular touch — but only through forwards,” says homemaker Nilakshi Poddar. “I met a person for professional reasons a while ago. We haven’t spoken or kept in touch after that. But we do send forwards to each other,” says banker Avijit Sengupta.

Follow the rules

Receiving forwards need not be a wholly tedious procedure. If only people followed the protocol that others seem to observe.

The cardinal rule should be to never send the same message to everyone in your address book. It is almost impossible that everyone you know will appreciate it. So, instead of leaving it up to the recipient to delete it from his/her inbox, show some courtesy and delete those names you have a feeling will resent the intrusion from your ‘to’ and ‘cc’ list.

Some senders do have the decorum to check whether their missives are welcome. “A couple of days ago, I asked my friends whether my habit of sending forwards annoyed them. But they all said that they loved the forwards I send,” says PR professional Saugat Chatterjee. “Whenever I am travelling and can’t send forwards for a couple of days, I have many friends calling me up to say that they miss my forwards,” laughs Jayaraman.

Some rules are implied. “There is an unwritten rule within my group of friends. If one sends an SMS forward, we reply with another forward as a thank you gesture! We reply to a forward with a forward,” says Bindi. Whatever works.

The forward sender should also be careful about what every forward he/she sends says about him/her. “I think it means that I like to share what I know with the people who matter to me,” says Saugat. “I don’t send forwards with too much matter because I don’t want to come across as boring. I don’t like sending chain letters either,” explains Bindi.

Most are unanimous in the opinion that certain kinds of forwards are best avoided. “Chain letters that tell you that bad luck will hound you if you don’t forward it to 10 other people, or the ones that say that a penny will be deposited for the treatment of a child against every mail sent are the ones that really annoy me,” cringes media professional Mohini Banerjee.

Mail forwards also seem to score over SMS. “I think SMS forwards are intrusive compared to mail forwards as you can ignore mails, but you can’t really ignore an SMS,” says Mohini. (She obviously doesn’t have a Blackberry user in her address book.)

SMS also doesn’t have the space mail does. “Being larger in capacity, a lot of matter can be sent on mail. And SMS doesn’t support pictures,” says Jayaraman.

And the biggest factor: an SMS will cost you but a mail will not. When you are in the habit of hitting “send to all”, it can add up.

Receiver’s remorse

Don’t get us wrong: there are some forwards that are seriously funny or seriously thought-provoking and are worth the time spent reading them. These are welcome, but they are also regrettably few in number.

“I don’t like receiving forwards and neither do I send them. I think they are a waste of time,” says software engineer Shomik Sen. Photographer Kaustav Saikia feels that the forward sender is a “compulsive attention seeker” while web content developer Ameeta Marya only sees one key when she spots a forward — delete! Corporate executive Hirak Dasgupta has discovered a novel way to score over the forward menace: “I have an email account only dedicated for receiving forwards.”

emailjunkyard.com, a site from which many download forwards, issues a warning to its users: “Sending e-mail junk to people who haven’t requested it can cause loss of friendship, profane e-mail responses, and ostracism.” And coming straight from the source, this is sound advice.

 

sample these...

1 Reasons why men are just happier people...

Your last name stays put.

The garage is all yours.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.

You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal.

Wrinkles add character.

Wedding dress $5,000. Tux rental $100.

People never stare at your chest when you’re talking to them.

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.

You only have to shave your face and neck.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.

 

2 The President of Argentina received this picture (we trust you to imagine an image sufficiently malevolent) and called it “junk mail”. Eight days later, his son died. A man received this picture and immediately sent out copies. His surprise was winning the lottery. Alberto Martinez received this picture, gave it to his secretary to make copies but they forgot to distribute it. She lost her job and he lost his family. This picture is miraculous and sacred, don’t forget to forward this within 13 days to at least 20 people. Do Not Forget to forward and you will receive a huge surprise!!

 

3 Santa and Banta chance upon an Egyptian mummy.

Santa: Look so many bandages! Pakka lorry accident case.

Banta: The lorry number is also mentioned — BC 1760!!!

 

4 This is weird, but interesting! fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it. ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS.

 

5 Be alert during the next few days: Don’t open any message with an attached file called “Invitation”, regardless of who sent it. It’s a virus that opens an Olympic Torch that “burns” the whole hard disk of your computer. This virus will come from someone who has your email address; that’s why you should send this email to all your contacts. It’s better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus.