The purpose of spam

I probably shouldn't have cancelled my email subscription to SAT's Question of the Day, and Allrecipe's Recipe of the Day. It was oddly comforting to be receiving spam, only to delete them without even looking at its contents. I guess it was the routine and predictability that I appreciated, and always the latent hope that the two new emails in my inbox might be something more personal. Now I've even denied myself of that possibility.