I’m pulling up the email drawbridge on the spam invasion

DEALS to good to be true, discount offers, newsletters, charity requests, spam! I’m a pretty relaxed kind of person but this email business is out of control.

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I’M at war with my inbox.

Just when I think I’m winning the battle, reinforcements arrive, crowding my inbox (and my mind) once again.

The emails, from faceless people and companies, offer me deals simply “too good to be true” … instant millionairess status thanks to a long lost Nigerian uncle called Gorman Gorman; the ability to eat all I want AND look like Kate Moss; a super secure bank account upgrade to a bank I don’t belong to; an offer of an amazing new job; loans, steak knives, blood pressure pills, romance ... and on it goes.

And that’s just the spam.

Then there’s the email from people and companies that I’ve had some contact with.

I’m a pretty relaxed kind of person but this email business is out of control.

It seems the modern way of thinking is if I reply to an email, buy something on your website, or donate money to your charity that’s me giving you permission to add me to your list.

I beg to differ.

If I wanted to receive regular emails offering me the chance to enter your lottery for a house or a car (I’m looking at you Surf Lifesaving Australia) I would have said so when I donated money.

For the record, I think you do a great job protecting our beaches but I don’t want to be part of your raffles and your lotteries, I just want to give you money. Not all the time, just when I can. So please take me off your email list.

Ditto, the many fashion shops that have furnished me with a “store card”. I now realise the vast majority of these cards are totally useless and the only guaranteed return offered is a barrage of emails.

If you want customer loyalty here’s a tip – stop the emails.

Same goes for the people who read my email address in the paper and decide that’s the green light to add me to their email blasts promoting their latest and greatest product/course/e-book.

My email volley with a Sydney PR firm has been going for months now. Most weeks, sometimes twice a week, they send me over-friendly emails promoting baby products.

“Hi Alice!!! (overuse of the exclamation mark, now there’s a way to annoy), Hope you’re having a swell day!! I just want to tell you about these cute baby booties. We hope you’re able to include them in your next editorial, yours blah blah blah”.

I used to respond politely to these emails, explaining their products weren’t relevant to me and could they please remove me from their lists.

Absolutely! So sorry,” they’d respond.

Imagine my surprise (and rage) when, the following week, another email would drop.

“Hi Alice!!!!!!! Just reaching out to see what you thought of our little booties!!!!”

Somewhere along the way, in between excessive use of exclamation marks, I booted politeness to the kerb and took a more direct approach.

“I’ve asked you five times now to remove me, please do it before I block you.”

I’ve never taken a PR class but I reckon the intro course would include a lesson on “not spamming the journalist”.

When I began in journalism the fax machine used to provide a constant whir in the background, delivering reams of paper-based information (most of it was binned). Nowadays the ping of my email inbox has replaced the buzz of the fax.

Occasionally among the electronic barrage you’ll find something worth reading but those moments are rare. When I think of the time and energy it takes to manage my inbox (half a day following a two-week holiday) I wonder if it’s worth it. Anyone who I want to communicate with knows where to find me.

Even my Facebook feed isn’t sacred.

Among the messages from friends and acquaintances I’m now being deluged with sponsored posts from people and companies trying to flog me something.

It’s like I’m living in one enormous advertorial.

Enough! I call time on this digital noise.

I’m suffering information overload and it’s driving me bonkers.

I can’t be the only person feeling it. If these (allegedly) digitally savvy companies don’t rethink their strategies there will be a mass migration away from electronic mail – and away from their organisations and products.

Are you at war with your inbox? Tell us about it below.

Originally published as I’m pulling up the email drawbridge on the spam invasion