Selected news stories about the Pew Internet Project and articles citing our data.
The wave of Internet surfing is growing
2/16/2006 | 
Coverage
Amy Dorsett, San Antonio Express-News, Metro
'“When Lindsey Macias sits down in front of her laptop computer and logs on to the Internet, she has every intention of being productive and getting things done.
But more times than she'd care to admit, the nursing student is led astray, clicking on link after link unrelated to her school work.
"Usually it starts with checking your e-mail, but then there are links in your mail and it leads to one thing or another," said Macias, 22. "And lots of times I'll see something in the news or on TV and I'm curious so I'll look something up. It's access to way too much information."
Macias is far from alone when it comes to idling on the Internet.
According to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, surfing the Web without a specific purpose is gaining in popularity, with a 10 percent spike in the activity from a year ago.
"This takes Web surfing into a different category," said Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow with the Pew Foundation, a nonprofit, non-partisan research organization that examines the social impact of the Internet. "It is a destination in of itself."
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