Nicole Robinson

“Pass this on to 10 or more people; otherwise, you will have bad luck with love for five years,” is one of the many eerie sentences one might read in a chain letter.

Chain letters can be very annoying sometimes. For some reason, people become scared and actually do pass the letter on to other people, fearing what might happen if they don’t.

I am one of those people.

I really don’t know why either. It seems so unreal. Yet, if I don’t send out the letter, I get an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

When did chain letters start? I went and did some research on the Internet to see what I could find. The first recorded history of a chain letter was in 1888. However, some believe they could have originated in the Middle Ages.

In the Middle Ages they may have written them on walls or on paper, but in 2005, it’s a little different.

I can’t believe how many different types of chain letters there are nowadays. When I was younger, I would receive them by snail mail. I had to ask my mom to go out and buy me fifteen stamps and lots of envelopes so I wouldn’t be cursed with horrible things, like not having a boyfriend my whole life.

Later in my teens, I started to get them via e-mail. At least that was easy to send out to tons of people. Yet, my computer sometimes stalled while it was trying to send one message to a lot of people.

The other day, when I was supposed to be studying for a Spanish quiz, I went online to procrastinate on Facebook. I received one there! I couldn’t believe it!

This ‘letter’ was called the beautiful truck. There was a picture drawn out with letters of a semi truck. It had a little written message that stated if I didn’t send it to eight other people, I would be cursed with ugliness for the rest of my life.

I was kind of annoyed with this, but naturally I sent it to eight other people. I felt bad for sending it, because it was especially irking when I got it. Ever since I have sent that one out, I keep getting more and more put on my wall.

On another occasion,while cruising in my ride, I had my windows rolled down in my car and was singing along to my favorite tune, minding my own business. I was driving to return one of my favorite movies to the video store when I heard my phone beep. It was indicating that I had a new text message.

Even though I should have kept my eye on the road, I dug in my purse to grab my cell. To my surprise, I got a chain letter! This one was a joke and if I didn’t send it to 10 or more people, for the rest of my life I would have a lot of unhappiness. This text itself was a joke.

Now, this was taking the chain letter thing a little too far. I only get five free text messages a month, and I wasn’t about to pay extra on my phone bill to send this one out.

It’s not that I dislike chain letters altogether, but it seems more common every day now. New ones appear on my Facebook all the time. My mom even got one in the mail. I guess younger people aren’t the only ones still doing this.

Though at times they can be very irritating, chain letters are something everyone has encountered at least once in their lifetime. The mystery and uniqueness of them is what makes them get passed on for many years. Whether it started off with people writing on walls for their friends to see, or whether it was first delivered by a mailman and written on paper, the legend lives on.

With more technology arising, many new forms of chain letters will be sent out to people all over the world. I don’t know whether to call it a game or a tradition, but one thing is for sure, I don’t think we will ever break the chain.

Blatz is a sophomore print journalism major and a copy editor of The Spectator.