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Comment by ObieJazz | Hacker News Reader

I noticed two friends who use their mouse to repeatedly select and deselect text in web browsers as they read pages online. This is absolutely crazymaking for onlookers, but really satisfying for them.

I do this all the time. I hadn't ever really thought about it.

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This drives everyone else crazy, except when I am doing it on the New York Times website, in which case it tries to define all these words for me, which drives me crazy...

Me too, Dani! Add http://graphics8.nytimes.com/js/common/screen/altClickToSear... to your adblock filter and it will drive you crazy no more.

Thanks!

Nice, thankyou.

Besides, if you wanted the definition of a word, you install Ubiquity, hit Cntl+Space and type "def". It's fast, easy and free of annoying pop-ups!

I do too. In fact, that paragraph was kinda freaky to read because I'd just gotten done highlighting it a couple times.

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I only do it on webpages and not in Word docs or PDFs. So I wonder if it's a way of compensating for the lack of visible vertical reference points in web text.

Like, with Word docs and PDFs there is a page divider that any given text is visibly distant from. Maybe the lack of that in long web text is a problem.

As the article mentions. I won't, usually, highlight text in a word processor because I'll sometimes drag the text somewhere.

The interaction isn't free.

I've seen this in another form too: people who repeatedly draw a selection box around desktop icons. It's usually a background task while thinking or talking about something else or on the phone.

Me too.

And boy oh boy do we hate using the new york times website.

I also do this. At first, my girlfriend hated it. Now she has subconsciously started doing it herself. Just as planned.

I triple click to select the entire line/paragraph all the time. I don't even notice that I do it.

Me too. It really irks my wife if she's onlooking. That'll teach her to onlook I guess :-)

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