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Chainmail Letters

Photo credits - (Swagatika Behera at Flickr)

We have all seen it. It may not have been in our lifetime, but the cliche is easily visible in old paper copy files or when the old timey message is flowing across the silver screen. It seems so cheesy now. Once upon a time, it was just another day at the office.


August 7, 2004 - Sub: BIIIIG Yawn! - CC: nosyjosie@company-news.corp

FWD: Jerry in Financial 

Hello dear sir or madam! You have been privileged with this clipart GIF of a cat doing a stretch! Also, today is Monday! You know what that means! The line to the coffee pot is going to be phenomenal this morning. 

P.S. - Hubert smells bad today. ;D


If this looks familiar, then you know what this is referencing. If not, we have some ground to cover. Let us begin here. What is worse than a Monday at the office? The only thing that could be worse than listening to the copy machine right outside your cubicle whirring all morning is listening to Susan one cubicle over have a long-drawn-out conversation about nail polish with her manager in accounting on the phone. She keeps forwarding her calls to you, not knowing that you arrived early today. Your boss asked you to fill out some extra spreadsheets because he is in a hurry to arrive to a meeting at headquarters on time. Little did you know, it was only going to take five minutes. Tick... Tick... Tick... Tock. Did the second hand just move backwards a little bit?!


Did you know?

Memes were actually spawned by the late-era chainmail letter? Office workers would share their favorite moments from movie night in their forwarded rendition of an e-mail. It was a significant way to share and be social while also acknowledging inboxed messages. 


As the office computer became more and more of a staple in the industry, so did its common use. One person may have needed instruction on a seemingly simple task, so now everyone is expected to read the same e-mail on how to use the new water cooler. The passive-aggressive connotation is there, but it is still normal to be blunt at this point. No one has had their feelings hurt over a companywide e-mail, yet. A dumb question is best left on ice. Eventually, things get more complex. It is no longer the local office. A message is sent from New York to the office in Maryland, it goes from there to the Carolinas for a conference speaker to read over, and finally it lands in some poor chum's waste folder after they scroll through and barely click delete in the new Vegas spot overlooking the strip. The message was not so important, but something is missing. The glam! What happened to the funny cat pictures and superstitious ultimatums about important events on the third Tuesday? 


While many seek this humor in their modern inboxes, the lost art is gone. No longer will we see the same message that half the country woke up to this morning. No longer will we feel obligated to participate and contribute to the silly forwarding nicknames. "Captain_Jack_Arrow" and "FREEW1ND0W$98DOWNL0@D" will never encourage you click a link to a baseless movie forum ever again. That is okay! As time progresses, so does our humor. Some may take longer than others, but that is also okay. It happens. What matters is that we had a good time!


I would like to offer you this, a chainmail letter for you to copy and keep forever:


Send this message to three (3) friends by next Friday, or your computer will melt! The sun is slowly burning, and we are going along with it. How does that make you feel? It makes me feel GREAT! I am outliving THE SUN one glorious moment at a time. Never again will mom call and make me feel like I am not "bringing home the paper." Filling out boring paperwork just isn't going to be the same without me! I am the ink on the paper! WOO! Bring it on, world! Next Friday, keyboard jockey! Yeah!


Share at your convenience if you wish, but do not forget to outlive the sun! Thank you for reading, and be sure to let me know what you think of the story on my social pages.



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