Online dawdling a common pastime

NEW YORK

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 Internet & 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 older than 65 say they went online the previous day for no particular reason. Of those ages 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.

The phone survey was conducted from July 25 to Aug. 26 among 2,260 American adults.

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