Joe Soap wants to add
you to his Linkedin network.
It gave one option button:
Confirm you know Joe
Soap.
Well, Joe Soap used to have a publishing company which
printed a couple of my stories. We got on perfectly well, so I clicked the
button. It took me into a page which required me to give the usual catalogue of
personal information in order to first join their club. I don’t join clubs, and
I don’t like giving personal information, so I deleted the whole thing.
This morning I got another email:
You haven’t replied to
Joe Soap’s invitation yet. Confirm you know Joe Soap.
It irritated me; it reminded me of letters which say: You haven’t paid your phone bill yet. Do so
immediately. I found a button which said unsubscribe, so I tried that. It irritated me further that I never subscribed
in the first place.
It seems to me that the modern world is full of cyber people
trying to waylay you into joining their clubs. They feel like hijackers and I
dislike them.
But, of course, life generally is all about being hijacked
into the club of rampant consumerism. I dislike that, too, but modern life has
the insidious capacity to leave you largely isolated if you decline to
succumb to the pressure. It's partly how I got here.
I continue to take what bits are valuable to me. They don't amount to much.
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