Poll: Nearly 60% killing time on Internet

Diversion? Entertainment? Mental coffee break?

Whatever's at the root of American adults going online as a fun or leisure activity, research shows they're doing it more.

The percentage of adults who say they kill time on the Internet rose to 58 percent this year, up 29 percent from 2000. That's based on 851 Internet-users who responded to a mid-summer telephone survey done for the nonprofit Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. The results were released Friday.

While such usage rose in all age groups, the biggest leap was for those 18 to 29, with 81 percent saying they now head online for fun or to kill time.

Still, that's not to say that there's necessarily more goofing off going on than in earlier days.

"In the pre-Internet age people would sit in front of a television, thumb through a newspaper or magazine," as well as play games on consoles, says Lee Rainie, director of the Internet & American Life Project.

These days when people have leisure time, he says, they can log on or check tablets or mobile phones with an eye to finding some diversion, perhaps viewing a video or seeing what's new with friends on social networks.

Besides having the ability to find diversions online, there's added motivation. A decade ago much watercooler talk centered on shows such as "Friends" that were viewed on television, says Jonathan I. Ezor, assistant professor and director of the Institute for Business, Law and Technology at Touro Law Center in Central Islip. Now, much of what people need to know to be socially plugged-in actually originates online with sites like Twitter or YouTube, he says, so "there's an incentive to be where things happen."

Also, people heading online for something of interest are not just consumers -- they end up being content producers, as well, he says.

Debbi Honorof, marketing director for Hofstra University's continuing education program, tells of her 24-year-old son, an avid online video game player, who also writes for an online video gaming magazine. Her 21-year-old daughter "taught herself how to make fancy fondant cakes just by watching YouTube videos. And she's really good at it," says Honorof, who's created several social media and digital marketing courses for the continuing education program.

As for her children, she says the Internet has "expanded their horizons."