A rabbit hole, referring to the phrase "down the rabbit hole" from its use in Alice in Wonderland, is a metaphor for entry into the unknown; stumbling into a bizarre and disorienting alternate reality. [1] In modern terms, "falling into a rabbit hole" means getting interested in something to the point of distraction—usually by accident, and usually to a degree that the subject in question might not seem to merit. [1] Platforms like @Wikipedia—where 60% of linking is internal, to other pages on the same domain—create walkable neighborhoods of articles. [2] ::embed[https://storage.googleapis.com/mythos-demo.appspot.com/250de4b3-7c75-4782-9555-ceba121f332e.png]{provider=googleapis,type=card}
![https://storage.googleapis.com/mythos-demo.appspot.com/250de4b3-7c75-4782-9555-ceba121f332e.png]{provider=googleapis,type=card}](https://storage.googleapis.com/mythos-demo.appspot.com/250de4b3-7c75-4782-9555-ceba121f332e.png%5D%7Bprovider=googleapis,type=card%7D){kind=link}
This @Xkcd (#relevant-xkcd) encapsulates the public sentiment of this phenomenon quite well. ::embed[https://storage.googleapis.com/mythos-demo.appspot.com/fe88a17e-8dbb-4622-a9df-1ab37784d175.png]{provider=googleapis,type=card}
![https://storage.googleapis.com/mythos-demo.appspot.com/fe88a17e-8dbb-4622-a9df-1ab37784d175.png]{provider=googleapis,type=card}](https://storage.googleapis.com/mythos-demo.appspot.com/fe88a17e-8dbb-4622-a9df-1ab37784d175.png%5D%7Bprovider=googleapis,type=card%7D){kind=link}
References
- The Rabbit-Hole Rabbit Hole, newyorker.com
- Dataset Shows Where People Fall Into Wikipedia Rabbit Holes, wikimedia.org
- The Problem with Wikipedia, xkcd.com
Contexts
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