God's Nagware

Those annoying pop-ups on your laptop screen serve one purpose: to nag you into doing something.

It happens almost every time you boot up your computer. As soon as you log in, there's an inevitable flurry of pop-up messages reminding you that you have been negligent -- you've failed to take care of your machine properly in some way.

Some of these messages are practical, like those reminding you to update your software. Others are more ethical, telling you to purchase the license for that free trial software you downloaded 30 days ago. There's a window that reminds you to back up your computer, and the one that pops up whenever you attempt to perform a keystroke that is out of bounds (SYSTEM ERROR!). Not to mention the hundreds of advertisements that pop up like bad weeds on your feed over the course of a week.

Tech savvy people call these pop-up messages "nagware" because they constantly "nag" us to take action in response. The more we ignore them, the more ubiquitous -- and irritating -- they become.

But although these constant reminders are annoying, they do serve a purpose...