Between having to filter out junk that the spam filters at my ISP, Web host, and e-mail software missed; combing through my junk mail folder to look for messages I should have gotten but didn't; and having to check back with people to whom I've sent urgent e-mails, so I know they got them (half the time they didn't), spam has made e-mail almost unusable.

That's one reason why people gravitated to services like Facebook and Twitter. Initially, they were spam free. And freed from the burden of both e-mail and spam overload, people responded much more quickly (the fact that some responded at all is a plus). Well, those days are numbered, too.

I've written about Twitter and spam recently (""); since then, the problem has actually gotten worse (though the Twitmeisters did add a "report for spam" link to each profile shortly after I suggested it; I'll take full credit, thank you very much).

Yesterday I got a direct message from one of , urging me to visit a site pitching a colon cleansing product (!). The shoes-to-bowels transition was so weird I had to look into it. Turns out somebody had hijacked her account, though she managed to wrest control of it back. Looks like she got nabbed by that that hit last month.

I can't tell you how many bogus Facebook phishing e-mails I've deleted this week. That's apparently part of , probably in order to run more .