The Chatham Daily News

   Chained to superstitions? Or are you a "chain wrecker," willing to risk years of bad luck, or even a painful death?
    Love them or hate them, "forward or else" chain letters often evoke annoyance, dismay and even dread with dire warnings that something terrible will happen if you break the chain or promises of good luck if you comply.
    Spam and scams spread on screens, clogging inboxes, blogs and social sites.
    "Gone are the days of using a chain letter to share recipes, medicinal cures, letters and speeches. The 'well-intentioned' chain letter is now a manipulative email chain that leaves recipients fearful of chain humiliation," says Toronto therapist Deborah Mecklinger, who bucks the chain gang.
    Refuse to press send and "will the sender and all my colleagues be at risk of misfortune? Will the 20 willing participants now not win their millions because I refuse to be organized into a mass response that goes on to torture those that trust me with their email address?"
    She adds: "Call me a chain letter rebel and send me to email chain hell -- but don't send me an email chain."
    Breaking the chain of fools isn't easy. According to chain mail expert John Ratliff, founder of breakthechain.org, "the simplicity principle is the key: The easier it is to do something, the more likely we are to comply. Let's face it, most people can get passionate about a cause if all they have to do is hit the 'forward' button and choose names from their address book."
    It's all about viral messaging today -- evolving from the old fashioned pen-and-paper type, to the fax chain letters of the 1980s, to the e-mail chain letter and, most recently, the chain blog/social media post, says Ratliff. "Many of my readers express frustration that all they ever get from some friends and relatives are bogus virus warnings and political rants."
    Dr. Judith Orloff says that chain letters are a way of creating a community by passing messages on to friends, family and an extended community of people who may not even know one another. Some chain letters are innocent, others a hex.

COLUMNISTS

106597103