Search Engine Marketing

<< February 2012
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
26272829

Internet gives rise to Egosurfers and Wikipediholics

The internet has become a part of every day life to such an extent that is has spawned a range of addiction-related conditions, a new report claims.

The report in the New Scientist identified Egosurfing - when a user types their name into Google obsessively in order to check their search engine rankings - as just one of the personality problems that some internet users are suffering from.

Among the other new terms invented in order to describe internet users' peculiar behaviour are Cyberchondria, when a person obsessively researches diseases online that they fear they may have and Blog Streaking, when a person reveals immensely personal information about themselves on social media sites such as blogs.

Specialist in human-computer interaction at the University of Northumberland, Pam Briggs, said that the lack of cues such as body language and facial expression when communicating electronically could lead people to overcompensate in what they say, which could lead to an over-emotional or over-intimate message.

A Wikipediholic, meanwhile, displays an extreme devotion to updating entries in online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, with more than 2,400 users having edited over 4,000 pages each.

Addiction researcher at Nottingham Trent University Mark Griffiths said: "You can become addicted to potentially anything you do, because addictions rely on constant rewards."


track© Adfero Ltd