Photolurking, blog streaking and cheesepodding: The new Internet addictions

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: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Are-You-a-Wikipediholic-Test)).
• 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.