The New York Times has a rather interesting piece on zombies, titled “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead.” Even that esteemed newspaper can’t ignore the zombie phenomenon and seeks to find the underlying reasons for their rise in popularity.

The hypothesis is compelling, if not strikingly concise: “Zombies are just so easy to kill.” According to the author, battling zombies provides a vivid allegory for our repetitious, Internet-oriented lives. However many emails we delete, YouTube videos we watch, or news sites we frequent, the information is relentless and inexhaustible. We do our best to manage this overload, but one slip-up and we’re overcome.

Zombies are easy to kill, but they keep coming, and coming, and coming.

The researchers fear that the economic downturn could exacerbate the problem — “[parents] build these big houses but the children grow up in emotional silos,” one researcher stated, concluding that it’s only a matter of time until they become brainless hordes in desperate search for human flesh.

(Photo via Ian Aberle on Flickr)