Wikipedia:Wikitangent

A wikitangent is a phenomenon describing a visit to Wikipedia that results in ending up at an article entirely different from the article you came to Wikipedia to read.

For example, one might come to Wikipedia to read the article on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, and an hour later, in the midst of reading articles on Ann Coulter and Andre the Giant, realize what just happened.

In this example, whlst reading the 1812 Overture article, one clicked on the link to the Napoleon I of France article, which in turn led him to the Napoleon complex article. From there, he went on to heightism, which eventually led to list of famous tall men and list of famous tall women, under which Andre the Giant and Ann Coulter are respectively listed.

Causes

Inevitably, while reading articles, one will come across an interesting-looking link and click on it. These links often have little to do with the parent article other than they appeared in the article and were wikilinked (for example, the previous sentence's link to the article on interest). One may be greater predisposed to falling victim of a wikitangent if one is in a certain mood. For instance, a reader may be in an inquisitive mood, or may just have something on their mind that a random link pertained to.

Wikitangents are almost certainly more likely to happen (or at least more likely to happen at a greater degree) if the user is using a tabbed browser as opposed to a single-window browser such as older versions of Internet Explorer, and is using a mouse with a scroll wheel, as the two of these in tandem make tabbing articles for later viewing considerably more convenient than opening a new window or dropping the article one is currently reading in favor of the new link. The degree of the impact these conditions make, however, may not be significant.

Wikitangents or similar phenomena may be helpful in psychology as they may reflect the reader's interests, subconscious thoughts, or desires. For instance, in the example above, the user's journey may suggest he has a fascination with height, even though his initial stop was the Napoleon article.

Becoming involved in wikitangents may also call other subjects to mind, causing a reader to become interested in something not linked to in the article the user is reading. The reader may then either search for this article, or perhaps click other links that he or she thinks might link to the article. (The latter is a form of wikilaziness, in which a user reads through twenty articles for a link to another article because he/she does not wish to use the keyboard to type the name of the desired article in. This can also lead to other wikitangents.)

Effects of wikitangents

Depending on the user and his or her mood, wikitangents may be annoying, amusing, or interesting.

Wikitangents may also cause a reader to learn something he or she did not previously know. Depending on the nature of this content, this may or may not be something the reader particularly wanted to know.