Does anyone else have this?

[OliverGEarly]

I have a compulsion to find out everything I can about a topic. For example, when researching something I might have 20 browser windows open. One person in a Youtube video said this is called "Need to Know OCD". Does anyone else have this compulsion or type of OCD?

[Paxiled]

Everyone wants to label every behavior these days that involves a lot of ruminating as OCD. The person you're referring to is probably using OCD in a colloquial sense or slang, not truly that you have a mental illness.  So the real question is, does this make you unhappy?  Does not researching something so thoroughly make you anxious if you don't do it?  Do you do it because you're anxious and the anxiety is getting in the way of your life?  Are you avoiding doing things or having trouble sleeping or all the usual suspects for an anxiety sufferer because of this or that is causing you to do this?  Or are you someone who just likes to research stuff?  The thing about the internet is, if you do choose to use the internet. Some sites are conspiracy theories which are giving you bogus info.  Other sites are quite good scholarly or informed discussions of a topic.  Which means, any time anyone who is truly interested in a topic tries to find answers on the internet they are going to find a whole lot of different sites talking about it.  It's not unlike going to a world class library and going into the stacks in search of an answer from one book you know about and finding dozens of other books shelved alongside it and finding yourself sitting on the floor reading all day.  Which leaves one really well informed on a topic and whether there's any consensus on the issue.  So if you're just a curious fellow who likes doing research and you have the time to do it and you're researching things that need researching or are interesting to research you are going to end up being a pretty well informed human, which is a good thing, as long as you can tell the difference between the real stuff and the crap.    Is this any difference than someone who has a compulsion to watch Game of Thrones or play the guitar or work all day trying to make as much money as possible?  All are compulsions.  Life is all about compulsions.  So again, the question is, is this something that makes your life miserable, or are you already miserable and insecure and this is why you keep doing this or is it just what you happen to like to do?  It's not OCD, but it might be a problem, as any compulsion can either be used productively or destructively.  Peace.

[Paxiled]

And just to add, remember, the first things that pop us on the internet are gamed.  They aren't necessarily telling you the complete story or even the correct story.  You might have to dig in 100 pages to do that these days, as everyone knows how to game Google now.  And that does take a lot of time.