Web Surfing for Fun Becomes a Staple of Internet Life

Washington — More Americans are turning to the internet as a place to hang out. Nearly a third of internet users go online on a typical day for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time. A new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that surfing the Web just for fun is now one of the most popular activities internet users do online. Among the dozens of activities that are tracked on an average day by the Pew Internet Project, the act of surfing for fun trails only the more purposeful activities of doing their email and using search engines, and lies in a virtual dead heat with reading the news. Two-thirds of all internet users have tried surfing the Web, and in a survey conducted in December 2005, nearly half of those, some 40 million people, said they were surfing for fun on a typical day during the month. This number is up from 25 million people who were browsing for no particular reason in November 2004, the most recent time when this question was asked by the Pew Internet Project. According to the December survey, on a typical day, Web surfers were more likely to be young, to be male, and to have broadband connections: