WastedTimes

[hbgator]

Nearly one-third of American Internet users surveyed said they go online just for fun rather than to check e-mail, read news or use a search engine, a sharp increase from a year ago, the Pew Internet & American Life Project said on Wednesday.

"This tells us the internet is another place where people increasingly go to while away their time or just to hang out," said Deborah Fallows, senior research fellow at the nonpartisan research group which examines the social impact of the Internet.

"That has potentially big consequences for the way people spend their time," she added.

A survey of 1,931 Internet users conducted by Pew 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.

Pew credited the increase on growing availability of broadband access and expanding Web content.

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.

When it comes to other online pursuits, Pew said that sending or receiving e-mail ranked highest with 52 percent of Internet users saying they did this on a typical day. Using a search engine ranked second with 38 percent, while reading news online was third with 31 percent.

[jkf]

Its good that more and more people are enjoying the internet.
Too bad for some people that still think that the computer is just
a box that you keep in the corner to play computer solitaire...

The real enjoyment comes from discovering different sites and the
variety of information and entrertainment we get each time we find
a new link. (like this place...lol) Unlike television, we get to choose
our own programming, and get to interact with sites and other people.

What's bad about it??? All the entertainment establishments of the
past are losing money because we don't go to them anymore. We
still get out on occasion but its not necessary to go somewhere to
have fun. Times are changing... We may eventually evolve to losing
our physical capabilites... LOL

Not too far in the future, we will be able to wear a cap or something
and directly will a command to the computer so we won't have to type
anything in... scarey but reasearch is being done in that area to help
the handicapped already. Maybe we will end up like those in the Matrix.

[Lady DarkFire]

I always thought of the Net as a welcome diversion from reality. A place where all the responsibilities placed upon one's shoulders can slide freely so that an individual can escape their problems for a moment or two to just have fun. I don't think there's anything wrong with that either but apparently the researchers want our Net lives to be just as stale as their offline lives.

As for the Matrix-thing? I actually wouldn't mind being able to pull all those nifty martial arts aerial moves. Bring that good stuff on! ^_~

Edited: b/c she forgot her little emoto.