Written by: John Preer

If you are a VSU student or faculty member, a certain format should be fairly familiar:  the initial of your first name, a middle initial (sometimes) and your full last name followed by “@valdosta.edu.”

Every student is set up with an email address in a similar format when he or she registers at VSU.  This email is a useful tool for students because it provides them with a way to maintain contact with professors and colleagues.

The VSU email address also serves as a username for Blazeview and Atomic Learning.  Students who recently received their VSU email addresses can enjoy a few hours of relative peace and small inbox numbers before the onslaught begins.  Almost out of nowhere that fresh, new email inbox is filled with advertisements and random promotions for events and restaurants all around the city.

To a lot of students these advertisements are little more than a minor annoyance; however, some actually peruse the emails for deals and offers.  Perhaps the most-received emails by students are the VSU Student Activities messages.

For students looking for an escape from these emails, there is a way out.  The IT Helpdesk has an entire page on VSU’s website specifically dedicated to teaching users how to filter emails in their inboxes.

This page has step-by-step directions for toggling the automatic spam filter, applying new filters and customizing them to fit individual specifications.  This is a useful tool for students, but many don’t realize that they have this option available.

“I had no idea, but the emails have never bothered me to the point of using the filter,” Charles Cortez, senior biology major, said.

Like Charles, not all students despise the automated emails.  Some students actually find the emails useful.

“I’ll read emails from Blanton Commons, but only because I’ve been interested in living there,” Jaleesa Evans, junior communications major, said.

There are also a large percentage of students who selectively skim the emails for information that they find useful or interesting.

“I’ll read the events-list email from Trisha Taylor, but most of the time I just glance over them,” Kaala White, sophomore early childhood education major, said.

Spam mail has become the norm in the digital age, and it seems that VSU’s student body has accepted and assimilated it into everyday life.