More People Are Surfing the Web for Fun

Posted on February 20, 2006

Media Shift blogs about a new Pew Study that found more people than ever are using the Internet for fun. The study found that 1/3 of web users go online "for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time."

In fact, Pew figures that 30% of web surfers were online for no particular reason on the average day in December 2005, up from 21% who were aimlessly surfing the web on the average day-dreaming day in November 2004.
"Compared to other online pursuits, the act of surfing for fun now stands only behind sending or receiving email (52% of internet users do this on a typical day) and using a search engine (38% of internet users do this on a typical day), and is in a virtual tie for third with the act of getting news online (31% of internet users do this on a typical day)," the report said.

Looking at the PDF file for the report you can see two more not very surprising finds. The study found that younger web surfers spends more time surfing the Web for fun. It also found that broadband users were more likely to use the Internet for fun or "no particular reason."