Turns out that “unsubscribing” from spam actually works

After my spam hit a point where I couldn’t actually download my email faster than it was arrivingI spent a month clicking the unsubscribe links in all the spams in my inbox. Weirdly, it worked.

What’s weirder is that I discovered that most of that spam was coming from organizations I knew, even ones I supported and had worked with, but whose mailing lists I’d never asked to join. The growth of proprietary platforms — cough Facebook cough — that charge businesses to reach customers who’ve a...