So this is going to majorly show my age, but... does anyone remember the days when our mailboxes were occasionally graced with chain letters promising good luck, love, or dire consequences if we didn't forward them onto six/eight/ten other people? (This all hinged on you having six/eight/ten other friends who you thought would actually get with the chain, of course.)
I remember those days. It was one of those things where you didn't really want to have a curse hanging over your head at any given moment, but at the same time if you weren't included in the chain letter you still felt shafted. Ah, 90s FOMO!
There are probably a few people who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, so I'm going to talk about chain letters of the 80s and 90s and introduce you to what we used to consider "viral content."
What is a Chain Letter?
At its core, a chain letter is a message that encourages the recipient to make multiple copies and then distribute them. The purpose varies. Some promise good luck or money if the chain isn't broken, while others might include heartwarming stories or ominous warnings of misfortune if you dared to break the sequence.
Origins
While chain letters certainly found their heyday in the 80s and 90s, they actually date back much further, with some suggesting origins in the early 20th Century. However, it was during the late 20th Century that they began to spread far and wide, both in paper form and, with the advent of the internet, through emails.
Themes and Variations
Chain letters took on various forms:
Luck Letters: These promised that recipients would experience a stroke of good luck (or avoid bad luck) if they continued the chain. These were the ones that hinted at serious misfortune if you broke the chain and could be pretty scary to a kid.
Money Chains: By sending money to a person at the top of a list and adding your name to the bottom, you were promised an eventual windfall as your name moved up. This was essentially a pyramid scheme and was illegal in many countries.
Love Letters: These assured readers that they'd meet their true love or maintain a happy relationship by forwarding the letter. Heh, if it was only that simple...
Petition Chains: These letters, often involving socio-political issues, claimed to be petitions that needed a certain number of signatures.
The Rise of Email and Digital Chain Letters
With the growth of the internet in the late 90s, chain letters found a new medium: email. Now, instead of painstakingly copying a letter by hand or with a copier, the recipient could effortlessly forward the message to dozens or even hundreds of people in mere seconds. The ease of dissemination made email chain letters particularly pervasive, although I always felt that digital chain letters lost a lot of the furtive nature of the activity (which was the bit I liked most). You just can't compare hitting "Forward" to ten emails versus huddling under the bed covers with a torch painstakingly copying a letter five times by hand.
The Psychological Play
Chain letters are masterful manipulators of human psychology. They play on:
Fear: The fear of missing out or incurring bad luck is a powerful motivator.
Greed: The idea of receiving money or some other reward for minimal effort can be tempting.
Curiosity: Some chain letters contained intriguing stories or puzzles, enticing people to continue the chain to see how the narrative evolved.
Altruism: Many letters capitalized on our desire to do good, be it sending a postcard to a sick child or helping someone find love.
The Decline
The rampant spread of chain letters, particularly via email, led to a sort of digital fatigue. People became wary of potential scams, especially as stories emerged of people being conned through such schemes. Spam filters and education about internet scams further curtailed their spread.
And as social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took off, our methods of digital interaction shifted. Chain letters found less traction in these environments, replaced instead by memes, viral videos and challenges.
In Retrospect
Chain letters from the 80s and 90s serve as an interesting cultural artifact. They show us our vulnerabilities, hopes, and the lengths we might go to for luck, love, or even just a sense of belonging. In an age where viral content spreads globally within seconds, it's fascinating to remember a time when the 'viral' was a hand-copied letter, sent with a stamp and a wish.
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