If you're familiar with the sounds of dial-up internet, I'm certain you remember chain emails. The misspellings, the vague threats, the excessive capitalization. It was a simpler time in our digital world when we weren't so averse to the occasional spam message in our inbox. But like, what the hell was that? In fact, why the hell was that?

Chain letters have been around literally since the dawn of human history. Historians believe many early examples have been lost to time, but here's an NPR piece about a chain letter from 55 AD. From physical letters, to pamphlets, to the invention of Hotmail, the simple chain letter has been one of the most prevalent forms of mass media. That's honestly kind of crazy considering most chain letters have no way to generate return.