Friday, April 20, 2012

Infomania

I've been on an infographic kick lately. If you don't know what that is, it is essentially taking information (usually some kind of statistic or number) and putting it into a series of picture or images. This could be a simple graph, or something more complicated. "Infographic" is a recent word with origins on the internet, and is a a portmanteau of the words "information" and "graphic".

While not particularly in-depth, they are usually used to lay out the results of a study or survey very simply, and in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at. I'm a visual learner, so  this kind of thing is right up my alley.

For example, here's an infographic from Mashable.com about how online gaming is more likely to get you a date than online dating, which seems to be counterintuitive, and goes against the common stereotype about World of Warcraft players. While this may seem silly (because it is) you can't say it's not interesting or mentally stimulating in some ways. But for your serious types, click here for a serious infographic on internet censorship around the world.

For all the infographics your eyes can stand, you can click here to go to Mashable (just type "infographic" into the search bar) or here to the blog Graphic Sociology.

Random fun fact: according to several dictionaries, the term "infographic" is not a real word. Yet.


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