Is Undergraduate Spam under Control?

During the past few years, spam has invaded electronic mail boxes and become one of the major challenges for information systems (IS) professionals. Spam decreases user productivity, erodes electronic mail reliability, and requires the maintenance of spam-filtering software that drains the IS budget. Although spam is the largest type of electronic mail received, spam levels have begun to decrease. An important question, however, is whether the trend in industry is consistent among our undergraduate population. As a result, this paper empirically investigates spam incidence from a longitudinal perspective. Over 2,200 surveys from students enrolled in various School of Business courses were collected during a nine consecutive semester (four and one-half year) period. Electronic messaging was examined by type, gender, and semester. Results suggest that spam appears to have peaked and is dramatically decreasing both in quantity and as a percentage of total electronic mail received. Moreover, undergraduate spam incidence appears to be less prevalent than levels indicated in general population electronic mail. Gender, however, does not appear to be an important factor with regard to spam incidence. Another finding is that class-related electronic mail is now more common than personal