Spam
Unwanted bulk material โ originally email, now any annoying overload.
Origin
The internet sense comes from a 1970 Monty Python sketch in which a cafรฉ menu offers Spam (the canned meat) with everything, sung over by Vikings until conversation is impossible. Early ARPANET users borrowed the word for unwanted bulk messages, and it stuck as email exploded.
Modern usage
Used for unwanted texts, DMs, sales calls, and figuratively for any flood of low-quality output. 'Stop spamming the group chat' is a normal sentence now.
Tags
Related
Computers & Internet
Troll
Someone who provokes online for the reaction.
Computers & Internet
Going Viral
Spreading rapidly across the internet through sharing.
Computers & Internet
The Algorithm
The mysterious system that decides what you see online โ blamed for everything from your feed to your dating life.