Americans Using Internet 'Just for Fun'

Ant writes "CNET News.com reports that nearly one-third of American Internet users go online just for fun." From the article: "A survey of 1,931 Internet users conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project in late November and December 2005 found 30 percent of respondents said they went online "for no particular reason" on the previous day. That was up from 21 percent in a November 2004 survey. The survey also showed that 34 percent of online men were surfing for fun on an average day in December, compared with 26 percent of women."

Comments

Look on the bright side

[suso]

That means that 2/3s are actually using it for actual work.

Re:Look on the bright side

[IAAP]

That means that 2/3s are actually using it for actual work.

I am. I am in a personal study of pornography on the internet. I am also doing a business plan for an online porn business which requires MUCH research on my part. I am also investigating the neuro-masturbatory reflexes in middle aged males. I am also investigating the proliferation of "MILF" websites. I have many, many more work related activities that I perform on the interent.

So, you sir are quite correct. 2/3s of us are working.

Re:Look on the bright side

[Rude Turnip]

Slashdot is very work related for me. It allows me to engage in discussions of multiple topics and hone my critical thinking and analytical skills, keeping me sharp and witty. When I'm writing a response to the IRS for an audit issue, I've already had enough experience in dealing with trolls and general stupidity to handle the IRS with great aplomb.

spelling mistake

[parseexception]

"for no particular reason"
I thought it was spelled pr0n

December representative of the rest of the year?

[Anonymous Coward]

December seems like the month that has the most goofing off in it in general, in the lead up to Christmas. I wonder if they'd get the same numbers if they ran the survey this month.

The Internet is for Fun^H^H^HPorn!

[Bogon]

As the fine folks of AvenueQ would say... "just grab your d*ck and double-click!" :)

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/internet4por n

There's nothing fun...

[brian0918]

...about getting your ass handed to you by a bunch of 12 year old script kiddies in Counter-Strike.....

Misspelling....

[wolfemi1]

...one-third of American Internet users go online just for fun.

I think they misspelled "Pr0n".

for the articles

[fugu]

I'm just reading it for the articles...

24/7 connectivity ....

[gstoddart]

I'm sure mnost of us are almost always within a few feet of an internet connection.

When I'm at work, or at home, I've got machines with 24/7 internet connectivity. I use the internet to check my mail, the weather, any news updates, settle disputes, find out things, look around to kill time, verify syntax of command, read movie reviews, and practically every thing else.

Sometimes I'll go over to my home machines, and just check about a half a dozen tabs in Mozilla which are always up just to see if anything new happened since the last time.

For many of us, the internet has become ubiquitous, and just sort of always there. It's hard to nail down any one specific reason why I'm connected. It's just there all of the time.

Re:Disgusting!

[saltydogdesign]

When I was a boy, I had to walk 18 miles, uphill, in the snow, with no shoes on, just to get to Yahoo.com. And back then, it only had 4 links.