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Wilfing The Web
Some wilf a lot more than others....
The Internet lexicon has a new word to describe an online activity,
according to a light article in Newsfactor.com, and it turns on
the desperate phrase "Now what was I looking for?" usually
uttered as a "wistful question of the gray-haired set!"
Newscom reports that in classic Internet fashion the phrase has
been reduced to an acronym, turned into a verb, and given a new
definition. In the United Kingdom, the act of wandering aimlessly
through the Web's endless hyperlinks is now known as "wilfing"
(What Was I Looking For!). And, according to a British market research
firm, wilfing is becoming a national epidemic.
The article goes on to provide some serious figures, quoting a
YouGov plc study of 2 412 adults across Britain which found that
more than two-thirds of Internet surfers admit to at least an occasional
wilf, and nearly 25 percent estimate that they wilf more than 30
percent of the time they're online. That's the equivalent of two
full workdays every month.
The survey discovered that shopping sites are the biggest motivation
for wilfing, followed closely by news and travel sites.
The YouGov survey in England highlighted another negative consequence
of wilfing - the impact that aimless Web surfing can have on relationships.
More than 33 percent of the British Web surfers surveyed said that
they were criticised by their partners for wilfing. That figure
is considerably higher than a 2005 Stanford University poll, in
which just 6 percent reported that their relationship had suffered
from Internet surfing habits.
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