You're in my space, dude
Every day I get flyers and brochures in my postbox, which I glance at uninterestedly and then consign to the rubbish bin.
Every day I get spam in my email inbox, which makes me grumble and wish all inconsiderate spammers to perdition.
Why the difference?
I never thought about this till Dan asked today, "How do we identify, especially in the digital age in which we live, where the line between effective promotion (self- or otherwise) is and where we've crossed it?" In other words, When does promotion become spam?
At first I was going to say it's when the information is unsolicited, then I remembered all the junk mail in my postbox, which is just as unsolicited. Yet it never makes me feel as if it's invading my privacy or encroaching upon my personal space.
I think that's the answer.
Email is something personal -- we use it to communicate with friends, relatives, clients, or business partners. We're doing something with it, and then these unsolicited messages pop up and, in a way, disrupt the flow, and that's very jarring. It's like when I'm having lunch with friends and some salesman comes round trying to sell something. Like, hello, get out of my face, go disturb someone else! Can't you see you're not wanted here?!
Plus, you know, it's not like I give out my email address to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. My house's postbox is nestled in a pillar along the road -- anybody can walk by and dump something in it. But my email address is not hanging out there for the whole world to see, and when I get promotional material I didn't ask for, I'm thinking: Hey you, your trash is taking up valuable space in my inbox. Go dump it somewhere else.
Again, blogs are something personal. It's my personal space to say what I want, or to write about the things that interest me. What do you think you are doing, coming here and pimping your service / website / product? You're invading my space, and what's more, making use of it to promote yourself to others. That's so not cool, dude.
We in Malaysia are also starting to get a lot of text message (SMS) spam on our mobile phones. The mobile phone is something intensely personal because we carry the darned things around with us everywhere we go (I know someone who even carries it into the shower with her so that she can answer if she gets a call!). It's almost like a part of us that we can't do without.
And a mobile phone number is not like a land line, which gets listed in the phone directory; similar to my email address, you should only know my number if I've actually given it to you. When I get spammed via text message, I feel violated. Once again, you've trespassed into my personal space. In fact, it's creepier than email coz it's got slight stalkerish overtones. No matter where I go, the spam keeps following me! I can't escape! Aieeeeee!
So, do all the promotion you want, but stay out of my space. When you get into my space, it's spam, and I will have no mercy.