Day 45

Something that I find really annoying and quite intrusive are spam text messages, which have been coming through in abundance recently. A result of lockdown as they have usually been concerned with the delivery of a parcel. So far I’ve received messengers in reference to a parcel’s progress, on it being delayed, stuck in customs, is about to be returned to the sender, has been misdelivered, or one of my favourites, a simple delivery notice: “YOUR order WILL be delivered by DHL tomorrow between 11:26 and 14:26” - if only real deliveries, or tradespersons, were so precise! All including a web link that in no way resembles a parcel delivery service. Currently, I am receiving at least one a day which I find amusing, considering I haven’t done any online shopping and yet multiple packages are expected to arrive. Unlike spam emails, which have been a norm since day one and come with the territory, there are specific filters in place to deal with these items - the Spam/Junk Folder - and all other marketing material can be unsubscribed. These days such filters are so useful and advanced that we are often told to search the junk folder in incidents where we don’t receive an expected email. Physical junk mail, which somehow continuously by-passes the filter of a ‘no junk mail’ sign posted on the letterbox, can simply be binned and although annoying, they are not intrusive. Text messages though, being instantaneous and generally within our physical reach at all times, are quite a personal interaction. The ability for false, misleading, marketing and/or political based and unwarranted messages to infiltrate this space, for me, is one step too far. While currently it is possible to filter text messages between ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ senders, this isn’t a practical solution, nor is the introduction of a ‘spam folder’ as it would interfere with the convenience of text messages. Here’s hoping our last resort, legislation, isn’t far off. Though with any spam item, I’m always confused on who actually interacts with these items and is the pay-off really worth the effort of the sender?