when you speak of spam, what do you think of first pig parts or trash?

Some More Spam

       It is this time of the month I am constantly reminded of how much I am on the internet and of how much actual dependency I have on technology. I purchase a pass of 13 Gb (gigabytes) and I usually run out by the month’s end. This causes a little mini crisis in my mind as I say to myself, how am I ever going to get by on slow speed, instead of the gut ripping high speed action I am used to?  But you know what every month I get by without seeing an actual need to jump online and whip out the debit card and re-up my Gb worth of data to just make it through the end of my contract date.

       My internet provider has a contractual right to continue to provide me service till the time I need to re-up my contract, as they call it. I just don’t get it, at the speed they claim they are sending it to me normally. There is some difference between the regular speed and when I run out, but at times you could hardly tell. It still loads ads first and content later, making sure I know what there is out there for sale whether I am looking for it or not. This brings me to ponder on some points of just exactly what I am paying for. And just who in the heck is actually metering this stuff, and if they are who is watching them.

     Currently it is us the consumer who is watching the internet alone. If you are like me and consistently by the end the month always end up in the red when it comes to internet usage,  it makes you wonder if I am getting exactly what I am paying for and just what that is, or consists of. Part of it is spam, and if I had to guess, I would say more than half my internet usage goes to spam. Unwanted unused ads targeted towards me encouraging me to spend more money even on the same carrier I have already consigned to deliver me service. So in effect I am actually paying myself for spam.

    Questions like, if they know its spam then why are they still sending it to me. I get an average of 100 -200 emails marked spam per day I never open and all I do is just dump them, still am I paying for that crap coming through my mail box? Maybe if I opened each and every spam folder then I would have to pay the extra data. Still at that it is unwanted files with headings taking up data I am paying for. And how much data is needed to keep those rolling ads going, especially from your carrier and who is paying for that? Unfortunately I am for sure. If it appears on my screen then I am sure it went through the meter.

      I could imagine that in the dark belly of an Ip (internet provider) headquarters there is a thing called the meter room. Disgruntled or unfit executives are moved from the windowed offices in the top floors of their gleaming white enterprise and forced to do time monitoring the meters of each and every one of us that we must endure when we buy data from our carriers. The top executives only give them one directive and if they screw that up it is out the door to fight for another job in the Ip market. Armed with a pipe wrench and a bottle of vodka and the occasional joint one could scare up, their job is to keep the meters running. There is no turning down the meters and there is only way to go with the rate and that is up.  No daylight or union or even internet access for themselves as they roam from one meter to the next , making sure the meters are running on us, the consumers 24 hrs. a day whether we are looking at our computers and personal devices or not. It’s a tough job, occasionally turning the meters up a bit more and banging on them if they are stuck till data pours from them again eventually using up all your Gb .  And who is watching Joe the Ip guy stuck in the belly of the beast.

     No doubt it I Betty the bean counter in accounting as she constantly calling down to Joe the meter man telling him turn up the spam or tone it down depending on how much revenue the top floor needs to make ends meet. Otherwise besides us, the consumer, no one is watching or giving a damn if we are getting our money’s worth.

     Surely not the FTC, Federal Trade Commission whose job it is to assure that we are getting a fair shake from the internet companies we are dealing with. They are too busy with more important things like singling out a rogue stock investor who is acting on a stock tip he managed to wrangle a few extra bucks out of, while meanwhile the internet companies are gouging us each month for data we will never use or want, but have to take because we have no choice than to run it past Joe the meter man and Betty the bean counter whether we want to or not. There is only one way that the internet companies gauge their performance, and that is their way. There is no common standard of the business, or a congressman doing an investigation into why we have a spam box , because if we knew it is garbage then why are they sending it to us, Or looking at the issue of why we paying money to your internet provider to advertise on your own computer screen.

     No congressional investigation, or presidential action, or debate over legal implications is going to arise from our leaders on a national front and why is that? All of them in one way or another depend on the internet too, more and more. From campaign contributions to party favors of internet companies exchanging data, internet coverage, campaign contributions in exchange for basically a hands off policy towards internet regulation when it comes to raping the consumers. There is no standard and never will be among internet companies. As well there will be no special commission to monitor exactly what the consumer is paying for. Why bite off the hand that feeds you. This is a fight you never hear a congressman say is needed.

     Instead your congressman or presidential hopeful will inundate your inbox with messages of how important it is to elect him.  Even if you opt out of receiving those messages they will just send them to Joe the meter man to take care of. You will still get them regardless what you do. The internet is the easiest, less costly alternative to delivering spiel and rhetoric, wanted or not, espousing a candidates virtuous ascension to the top of the pile. At this point I would liken a politician at times to a truckload of dead babies. What is worse than a pile of dead politicians? A live one on the bottom eating its way to the top. He will stand on top of the rubble and those he had conquered and tell you how he is going to defend your rights, knowing all the while his speech is going to end up in the spam folder. Unseen unheard and quietly dispensed through the meters of Joe the meter man under the direction of Betty the bean counter.

     So really what is my concern if I don’t have that extra push, or incentive to buy extra data when I run out at exactly the same time each month?  Now if I could only have a penny for all those gigabytes I supposedly used in the last month, then  I would be a rich man. Imagine that an internet system that actually pays you to subscribe to them? What do I think I am, Google or something?

      Which brings me to my last point in all of this, imagine where you have a system where you pay them and advertisers pay them also for spreading their content into your living room almost instantaneously.  

       You, as the internet provider are in the middle with your hands out taking and never giving. It is hard for me to get excited about what any internet provider is offering in terms of public service as they have nothing but money and a unique advantage of taking but hardly giving from any source it can. Generosity is not going to be wasted on the likes of Joe the meter man who still has to buy his data somewhere because his company has few benefits for the wage earners on the lower floors. So when Google or T-Mobile  is offering to help the poor and wretched refuse, in this world a chance to  hook up to the internet in some far off distant land where they can barely afford to buy a used computer , let alone the internet coverage to go along with it . We know it’s because the internet wizards want those lazy bastards to quit drinking cows blood and start to man up and hook into the internet like the rest of us poor slobs as we contribute to the Ip stockholders success and suddenly get shoved in the front of the internet bus proverbially as we run over them in their with amazement at what technology can do, as you sit in front of your laptop sipping on some cow’s blood waving off the flies. I paint such a pretty picture of where internet usage is going. But the truth is, internet providers are not going to stop until every seal clubbing, fish trawler immigrant in the middle of the ocean is hooked into the internet and can’t live without them. As banks of computers miles long, monitor our every move as we humans suddenly become overwhelmed with technology and a refusal to unplug once plugged in.

      Sadly I have to admit that even I am dependent on technology and the ease at which I can continue to bring you awareness of how we are slipping into a large whole with nothing but glass sides as we reach out and paw for even a grip we can to keep from sliding into the abyss below, sadly a  place where everyone is connected. You are connected to Joe the meter man and Betty the bean counter as suddenly they are just a click away, where computers track your every move and consumer demand,  and then tailor a screen ad to entice you to spend your last dollar on what ? Can you eat data?

       There is an old farmer saying that comes to mind and it pertains to horses but I imagine it also applies to internet providers also. If you can’t eat it, screw it, or it keeps you warm in the winter. Then do you really need it?