It’s been almost a month now, and the new feature on the New York Times website is still killing me. In case you haven’t noticed, if you double click on a word in an NYT article a pop up window appears, defining the term for you. If you aren’t a compulsive clicker when you read blocks of text, then you won’t understand why I am so upset — but this thing is radically disrupting my reading habits.
Why? Because when I read online, I use my cursor. I highlight long blocks of text at a time, I scroll through and read, then highlight again. I’m constantly clicking on the text. And now, every time I do, I get a pop up window and it throws me off. I haven’t read a Sunday Magazine piece in weeks.
There’s a movement underway to have this feature turned off. If you are similarly troubled by this development, please join the chorus of voices in protest!
Matt Compton 
I’m not sure exactly why but this website is loading very
slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is
it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.
By: domain on September 21, 2014
at 9:24 pm
I understand your frustration with how frequently pop-up definitions interrupt reading flow.
By: Kylie on August 11, 2025
at 10:00 am