understanding internet users

(the following entry is a retreat of something i posted back in january. when i transferred my blog over from blogger, for some reason none of the material from january made it over here. so i’ll post some of the posts anew.)

a while ago i skulked around the internet again, using wordtracker to find out what keywords internet surfers use to look for the topics of problem drinking and anorexia. it was a pretty shocking experience.

for example, when checking what kind of keywords people used last month in connection with the word anorexic, there is hardly anything at all that would indicate that people think that anorexia, a life-threatening condition, is problematic. the most sought-after keyword was “anorexic pictures” (about 63,000 keyword searches, for pictures of supposedly sexy anorexic women).

most of the other keywords searched for are things like this

how to become anorexic
sexy anorexic
anorexic porn
anorexic sex
anorexic nude

the same thing with alcohol. when i looked for the word “drunk”, there were 27 times as many seaches for “drunk girls” as for “drunk driving” and 78 times as many searches for “drunk chicks” as for “victims of drunk driving accidents”.

i understand the mechanics of this – sex, drugs and rock’n'roll are more interesting in the short run than trying to deal with personal problems – but still …

do i sound like a dried-up old schoolmarm here?

isabella mori
counselling in vancouver