You were checking your personal emails at office, then saw a funny video on Youtube, then reached an interesting blog from the Youtube comments, subscribed to that blog, then discovered some unread items in your newsreader, then decided to save some of those posts to your delicious bookmarks, then saw a new Firefox extension to manage your email.... and the loop continues.
That's the never ending world of internet. Now a report says that two out of three Internet users in UK lose significant portions of their time to irrelevant web browsing.
They have coined a new term - "wilfing," short for "What Was I Looking For?" and the workers who spend hours in aimless browsing are called Wilfers.
And Men are found to be bigger wilfers than woman.
It may take lot of will power to quit this habit of wilfing. According to BBC, hardcore Wilfers are offered drug therapy, acupuncture and mild electric shock treatment in China.
Related: The Last Page on the Internet
Source: Reuters Story [via David Ewalt]
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/04/word-of-day-wilfing-what-was-i-looking.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
For many years there has been the Jewish word "Fonz" I'm not sure I spell it correctly though. It means to spend time actively doing nothing. That's more or less the same thing - although "phonts/ fontz" has a broader meaning.
Written on 12/4/07 3:28 AM
Now tell me.. havent u just made that up ? . And thank god i am not working in China :)
Written on 12/4/07 11:41 AM
I'ma WILFER sometimes i must admit. :D
Written on 12/4/07 8:32 PM
I am a wilfer and yes, at times I do real work too :)
Written on 14/4/07 12:14 AM