People have every right to send me letters, and I have every right not to read them.

The title of this piece is a quote from the author William Faulkner. While I am not a fan of his work, I can certainly appreciate his curmudgeonly attitude toward unwanted communication. We live in a world in which we are bombarded with emails, phone calls, and snail mail from people and organizations that don't have a clue who we but who would be glad to have our business.
While I welcome hearing from people I know, I sometimes get a tad bit annoyed with the other intrusions upon my solitude. My home email address must have been sold to a bunch of people and organizations. I get unwanted emails for free credit reports, jobs (I didn't know Jiffy Lube was interested in me), teeth whitening, gym memberships (one of the last things on earth I would buy), romantic getaways, waffle makers, laser treatments for hair loss, cordless electric knives, and a host of other things that make me glad my laptop has a "delete" button.
Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to totally escape these unwanted intrusions, but I have learned some ways to reduce the annoyance. When I bring in the mail, I go through it while I am next to the recycle container. I always tear up credit card applications (my name and address are pre-printed on the applications). Anything from an insurance company that is not the one I use goes into the recycle container. Catalogues from places I never patronize go in as well. Advertisements for replacement windows, siding, trash collection, etc., never make it any further. It is a shame to think about all of those trees  dying for nothing, but at least things get recycled, so it is not a total waste.
For telephone calls, I have found that registering for the "Do Not Call" list is of limited value, since non-profits are exempt, and many hire professional fundraisers, whom I detest. Almost all of them, though, use computers which dial multiple phone numbers simultaneously. When someone answers, the solicitor connects and starts the pitch. When I answer the phone and hear nothing, I know it is a telephone solicitor, so I hang up before the computer connects me. I don't know how many "worthy causes" I am missing the opportunity to support, but I am OK with the loss.
My email has a "Junk Mail" option which adds the email sender to a list of email addresses that are blocked, but I have not found this to be totally effective (it seems like some of them use multiple email addresses). One thing I have found helpful if to look at the bottom of the emails for a link to "unsubscribe". Clicking on this either instantly takes me off their list or does so within ten days, and I am finding fewer unwanted emails in my in box these days.
It is a shame that I can't prevent mail, emails and phone calls that I don't want in the first place, but my recycle container and Trash folder in my emails get a workout, and we all have William Faulkner to thank for pointing out that we do not have to feel the least bit guilty about it.