Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Redirect Rage may be a Clinical Disorder

Any Web surfer experiencing web redirects has probably said things like: "Stupid son of a [blank]"

When web redirects bring surfing to a crawl, anger can go from zero to 90 miles per hour in no time.
"I get very loud, I get very belligerent, I start shouting," said redirect rage sufferer Brad Kingston. "Everybody in my apartment block probably knows the sound of my screaming."

Doctors think Kingston's redirect rage is the symptom of something far deeper. He was diagnosed with a condition known as web intermittent rage explosive disorder, or WIRED.

"Redirect rage, especially if it's frequent enough, is probably a part of WIRED, which is much more prevalent than people thought," said Dr. Jose Cupato of the University of Idaho.

A new study of more than 7,000 people found that eight percent were WIRED.