Study confirms many of us go online for no reason

Dec 02, 2011

(AP) -- For anyone who needed official word, a new study confirms that many of us - and the majority of young adults - go online for no good reason at all.

The report from the Pew Research Center's & American Life Project found that on any given day, 53 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds go online just to have fun or pass time.

That should explain all those kitten videos.

The report finds that the amount of time people spend tooling around on the Web doing nothing corresponds with age. Only 12 percent of people over 65 say they went online the previous day for no particular reason. Of those aged 50 to 64, the study found 27 percent answered yes to the same question.

In all, 58 percent of all adults said that they use the Internet to pass time or have fun at least occasionally. Of adults who use the Internet, nearly three-quarters surf the Web for no reason.

The survey didn't define "fun," so people could interpret it broadly. For some people, gossip blogs might be fun, for others, they're serious research.

Pew is releasing the study on Friday. The phone survey was conducted from July 25 to Aug. 26 among 2,260 American adults.

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User comments : 7

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Nerdyguy
1 / 5 (6) Dec 02, 2011
How did this ridiculous claptrap make it past the PhysOrg editors? Quotas to fill? Just like to add a little humor?

And how does going online for "no good reason at all" equate to the headlines "for no reason". Presumably, going online for a "bad" reason would actually constitute having gone online for "a reason".

NotAsleep
2.2 / 5 (10) Dec 02, 2011
100% of people that visit this article are visiting it for no reason.
Nanobanano
3 / 5 (2) Dec 02, 2011
Don't see how it could be any worse than watching television, and definitely not as bad as hanging around with the wrong crowd of thugs in the neighbourhood.

People are looking for something, whether its distraction, entertainment, knowledge, meaning of life, whatever.

Just because they don't specify a reason, or maybe can't even put it to words themselves doesn't mean there's no reason at all.
GraemeMcRae
4 / 5 (4) Dec 02, 2011
I object to the expression "going online" as if "online" were some place a person might "go". Like many people, I carry my "online" with me wherever I am. It actually makes more sense to "go TV" or "go FM radio" which are things I have much less access to, and quite frankly it would be harder for me to think of a reason to "go" to the TV or radio than to consult a web-based resource.
Noumenon
4.5 / 5 (52) Dec 02, 2011
Humans need amusement and distraction, therefore such things are for a reason.

They should do a "study" about studies done for "no good reason at all".
FrankHerbert
1.2 / 5 (54) Dec 02, 2011
How did this ridiculous claptrap make it past the PhysOrg editors? Quotas to fill? Just like to add a little humor?

And how does going online for "no good reason at all" equate to the headlines "for no reason". Presumably, going online for a "bad" reason would actually constitute having gone online for "a reason".



Are you autistic?
Sinister1811
1 / 5 (1) Dec 03, 2011
The people who did this "research" and wrote the article likely did so for no reason.

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