This article is fascinating, particularly because spending an hour or two surfing aimlessly is an unfortunate weakness of mine.
What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible? Clues are offered by research conducted by Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, who is interested in the evolutionary and biological basis of the human need for information.
The article also makes an interesting argument against comments on Web sites. When the WSJ asked readers whether or not they preferred comments, they responded 60/40 against:
8 months agoEven more striking than the fact that these readers were denying themselves a voice was the reason some of them gave for declining the offer: Like cats chasing a laser, they wouldn’t be able to stop themselves
“In truth we would rarely opt not to read them,” said one reader. “Blog comments have the power to hammerlock one’s attention. … We’d be impotent to resist looking over the rantings and counter-rantings. … Not only would comments be an incredible drain on one’s time (especially if we check your blog several times a day from work), but it also exposes readers to the nasty underbelly of blogging.”