Communication technology has given us the means to contact anyone in the world instantly and it has also provided a way for others to get in touch with us without needing pesky stamps and envelopes.
Many of us would be lost without text messages and social media alerts from friends and family.
Instant messaging can also be bothersome though.
If you sign up to a loyalty club or to receive a heads up next time your favourite shop is having a sale, you can expect the odd marketing message or two but they are generally not too intrusive and you can always opt out of troublesome texts by hitting “unsubscribe”.
As many mobile phone customers have discovered however, unsubscribing does not seem to be an option when it comes to text messages from annoying politicians.
Some of us received a message from Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party a couple of weeks ago.
It was something about fast trains if you took the time to read it.
In a follow up message days later Mr Palmer promised to abolish unsolicited political text messages should he win the upcoming federal election.
These were just two texts – both of which could be deleted in the blink of an eye – but also a sign of things to come.
As the federal election draws closer we may all be receiving dings during dinnertime from other politicians.
Apparently it is legal and fair to be bombarded with messages that you did not request from people you do not particularly like – with no unsubscribe button to be seen.
It does remind us that this is an election year and it might be an idea to start thinking about taking a good, long look at the candidates for the top jobs.
Maybe it is time we all started better analysing their policies rather than reading their glib one liners that pop up on our mobile phones.
The fact is many voters appear to struggle to remember what a politician did last week, let alone their performance over previous years.
Other voters appear happy to simply blot out any political news or decision making from their minds.
It’s hard to imagine how these people approach a rational decision when it comes time to vote. Clearly, Palmer and other politicians understand this.