Spam: You just don't care

While industry watchers believe spam now makes up 75 per cent of all email, it seems people just aren't bothered by the never-ending stream of offers for pills and porn pouring into their inboxes.

According to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, fewer people find spam annoying or unpleasant than a year ago. Currently 67 per cent of email users say they find spam negatively affects their online experience, compared to 77 per cent a year ago.

Email users have also recovered their trust in email, with 53 per cent of users saying spam has sapped their confidence in email, down from 62 per cent a year ago.

The Pew Internet and American Life project has monitored email users' attitudes towards spam over the last two years and believes negative reactions hit a peak around a year ago and will decline or level off over time.

"These findings suggest that at least for now, the worst case scenario - that spam will seriously degrade or even destroy email - is not happening and that users are settling in to a level of discomfort with spam that is tolerable to them," the report says.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years old were the least likely to be bothered by spam and also the least likely to stop using email because of it, the report found.

Despite email users' increasingly blasé reaction towards spam, the impact of unsolicited bulk email on online behaviour shouldn't be underestimated.

The study reveals: "Despite declines, spam remains a relatively major issue for internet users: more than half of internet users, 52 per cent, consider spam a big problem. Internet users are more negative about spam than they are about other internet problems," such as malware.

Around one-fifth of users say that spam has affected their use of email in general, with 22 per cent of users now using email less as a direct result of unwanted bulk mail, although the figure is down from its 2004 figure of 29 per cent.

However, users aren't doing enough to prevent the annoying email ads from reaching them, it seems.

"Email users have changed their spam avoidance behaviour very little in the last year and a half. If anything, they have been a little less likely to practise good habits," the study said, noting that a stable six per cent of email users still buy products advertised through spam.