# Personal Internet Usage **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 28, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575 "2011-07-28T01:53:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/1 "2011-07-28T01:53:53Z")
How many hours a day do you use the internet for personal use? It counts if you’re using a phone, too. Poll coming. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/2 "2011-07-28T01:54:58Z")
I accidently didn’t put a poll. Just answer the question. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/3 "2011-07-28T16:33:29Z")
Ah ha ha ha…4 hours a weekday, probably 8+ on the weekend. It’s so hard to measure for me though. My computer is my personal hub to everything - I watch TV on it, I read on it, I do all sorts of activities. It’s all tied in close together. Am I classified as using the internet when I play Warcraft? But how would you compare that with someone playing online with their 360? You’d call that video gaming. And if I’m reading a short story on the computer I got on the internet, am I reading or using the internet? I probably read as many words a day as a book lover does, but mine are all read off a screen. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/4 "2011-07-28T16:37:22Z")
Two, maybe three depending on how much work I have each day. BTW you can add a poll at any time by clicking on “Thread Tools” and selecting “Add a poll to this thread.” ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/5 "2011-07-28T16:52:58Z")
About 16 give or take. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/6 "2011-07-28T21:12:00Z")
It varies. Some days I don’t get on at all, others I’ll be off and on all day. I don’t have a tv so I watch a lot of shows and movies online in the evenings. It’s a rare day I don’t at least check my email. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/7 "2011-07-29T17:41:43Z")
With the assumption that online gaming counts: 5-6 hours a day on weeknights, 15+ hours a day on weekends. I’m basically online anytime I’m awake and not at work, driving, grocery shopping, peeing, or cooking dinner. I also use it on forums between calls at work, but I couldn’t begin to try to estimate an average. It varies wildly depending on our workload, probably between 5 and 120 minutes every workday. I don’t have a television and I use the internet as my primary form of entertainment and interaction with the world. (queue cries of “Pathetic!” “Pasty!” “Go outside you tickle-brained jerk!”) ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/8 "2011-07-30T02:15:18Z")
I’m pretty much on the internet nearly every waking hour. No, I’m not a complete basement troll. But I’m almost never not connected. My typical daily (workday) schedule: Wake up Stumble groggily to the computer, check news sites (NYtimes, HuffingtonPost) Shower, shave and shi…sit comfortably for a minute, enjoying the morning Drive to work Boot up work compy Check work email (boring, slow) and recheck news sites+fark while shit-ass work email churns Work in lab for four hours (returning to desk and taking 2-3 minute “mini-breaks” to check all interesting websites every 45 minutes or so) Go to lunch (one hour, probably my only internet-free waking time) Back in the lab for another four hours, same “mini-breaks” every 45 minutes Get home Cook dinner, clean, run errands, whatever. Taking same “mini-breaks” to check all the NSFW news I couldn’t check at work. Maybe watch a bit of TV. Tablet is in my lap, constantly reading webs or playing HexDefense Kindle for an hour in bed (internet available, but I don’t use it.) Sleep. Repeat. Yep, the internet has completely consumed me. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/9 "2011-07-31T23:14:32Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Two, maybe three depending on how much work I have each day. > > BTW you can add a poll at any time by clicking on “Thread Tools” and selecting “Add a poll to this thread.” Thanks for the info. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/10 "2011-07-31T23:37:46Z")
Do you mean by ‘personal use’ such things as TV, Hulu, Netflix etc? I quit Dish Network and have just about quit Netflix DVDs so the internet is blasting on my TV in the background like the TV used to blast all day long. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-internet-usage/590575/11 "2011-07-31T23:57:53Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > Do you mean by ‘personal use’ such things as TV, Hulu, Netflix etc? I quit Dish Network and have just about quit Netflix DVDs so the internet is blasting on my TV in the background like the TV used to blast all day long. I’m going to count it. I really don’t, but I know if I don’t people are going to say online newpapers and games don’t either. While I can kind of understand newpapers. How do games not count as internet?