Driving around last weekend I heard an interview on NPR with designer and philosopher Ian Bogost about his creation the Facebook game Cow Clicker.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/18/142518949/cow-clicker-founder-if-you-cant-ruin-it-destroy-it

If you’ve got 8 minutes, please go to the link above and take a listen. This provocative little clip will make you laugh out loud. Here’s the gist of what happens: Bogost makes a game, Cow Clicker, meant to parody mindless, addictive Facebook games like Farmville. All you can do in this game is click on a cow and make it moo. He expects people to encounter his game, have a laugh, and move on. Instead the game builds a loyal following of rabid fans who don’t get the joke and play it frequently.

The story of Cow Clicker has me thinking a lot about social media and addictive behavior. How much of our online experience is dictated by habit? For those of us, like Style Me Pretty, who try to build up a following online how much of our efforts should be focused on pushing content or providing features that build habits with our readership? After all, you want to build a loyal following of rabid fans. You just want them coming to your site for all the right reasons.

Do you have any less-than-productive online habits you’d like to share? Leave a comment below.