“[A]udience members exposed to slow-downloading pages and then given the opportunity to freely browse the Web were more active in their investigations. They tried more hyperlinks and visited more sites than audience members who viewed pages with faster initial download speeds. In the past, such behavioral and physiological impacts were understood only as a result of the content of communication, not the manner in which the information was delivered.”

—Slow Download Speeds Capture the Interest of Internet SurfersEureka Alert)

If I weren’t a tee-totaler, I think I’d need a drink right now — I hate slow downloads, but I put up with it if I really have to use a particular resource. Is there a difference between the behavior of “surfers” (people who are amusing themselves by clicking through websties) that of and “users” (people who go online in order to accomplish a certain task)?