(from today's Yahoo! News)
PARIS (AFP) - The Internet has given birth to a quirky range of modern addictions and maladies, the British weekly New Scientist says in its Christmas issue published this Saturday.
They include these:
- EGO-SURFING: When you frequently check your name and reputation on the Internet.
- BLOG STREAKING: "Revealing secrets or personal information online which for everybody's sake would be best kept private."
- CRACKBERRY: "The curse of the modern executive: not being able to stop checking your BlackBerry, even at your grandmother's funeral." (A BlackBerry is a popular handheld device that can be used for phoning, emailing and web-browsing).
- GOOGLE-STALKING: Defined as "snooping online on old friends, colleagues or first dates."
- CYBERCHONDRIA: "A headache and a particular rash at the same time? Extensive online research tells you it must be cancer."
- PHOTOLURKING: Flicking through a photo album of someone you've never met.
- WIKIPEDIHOLISM: Excess devotion to contributing to the online collaborative encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. (Wikipedia even has a page where you can test whether you're an addict).
- CHEESEPODDING: Downloading of a song "so cheesy that you could cover it in plastic wrap and sell it at the deli counter." Cheesepodders are especially vulnerable to soft-rock favourites from the 1970s.
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Of the afflictions on this list, I admittedly suffer from cyberchondria, photolurking, and wikipediholism. And I want to work on becoming a cheesepodder, so I'm off in search of the "True" mp3 by Spandau Ballet. I think that's a good place to start, don't you?
--Jen
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Thanks! –Jen