Twenty years ago, most people did not even use computers at work; much less have access to the Internet. Even if they did, the Internet largely consisted of email and file sharing. But today, most of the workforce has at least some type of access to the Internet while on the job. And, in addition to being able to email friends and family, they also have the World Wide Web on which they can surf for news, online stores, jokes, online music, funny videos, online dating sites, funny pictures, and even friends. People love downloading music through iTunes, shopping at Amazon, or just reading the headlines at MSNBC or CNN. Because there is so much on the Internet today, many people are using work time to surf the Internet for personal reasons.



People seem to love the sites that contain humor. Humor is becoming more prevalent in certain workplaces today, offering the employees as way to blow off a little steam from a hard day of work. Humorous sites that offer funny videos such as http://www.stupidmcnupid.com/ have become very popular lately. You can see such amazing and bizarre videos as people launching a huge water bottle rocket, a building implosion in the middle of a crowded city, even an anaconda snake biting a policeman. Co-workers love to run into the next office to share the latest funny video they found while surfing the Internet. In fact, people love these funny videos so much, VH1 created a whole show devoted to them called Web Junk 20 that highlights the best of the best.

Many people use funny pictures on their web pages, in their emails, and other places. Web sites, such as http://www.stupidmcnupid.com/ that offer funny pictures have become very popular with Internet surfers. These pages offer hilarious real and slightly doctored photos that are so funny, people are becoming addicted to looking at them. You can view funny pictures such as that of President Bush on CNN (where CNN ran the headline the Hurricane Katrina headline: “Bush: One of the Worst Disasters to Hit the U.S.”), an image of how to cheat at poker (with a little help), and the kids that decided to do a little painting (and covered the living room in white paint).

There is so much information for which one can surf on the Internet and one of the newest inventions is social networking websites such as MySpace. MySpace is the 4th most popular web site in English and the 7th most popular in any language. Receiving 4.5% of the visits of all web sites, it is the most visited site in the United States. And many of these visits are not made from home computers. MySpace currently has over 100,000,000 members and attracts a half million new members each week. MySpace attracts users of all ages including those in the workforce. Due to all the great features that MySpace offers, many people find it hard to stay away for very long. If workers have access to the Internet at their job, they are more than likely to check their MySpace account at least once a day, possibly more often for new bulletins, emails, or just searching for new and interesting friends.

However, workers spending time on the Internet can decrease productivity. While it may be okay with a company for workers to surf on their own time, such as breaks or lunch, they do not want the workers surfing for personal reasons during work hours. Some people argue that surfing the Internet is equivalent to chatting at the water cooler or while in the hallway, but most employers feel differently, feeling that it decreases their production. To help prevent this, up to 80% of all employers are monitoring work computers. This means they have the potential to view all emails you send and receive, as well as know all the sites you surf and at what times you were surfing.

During baseball season alone, baseball fans who surf the Internet during work hours can cost companies a total of $10 billion in lost productivity. This is not just an American phenomenon – a study by a software company in Australia showed that the Australian economy loses approximately $644 million a year in lost productivity due to Internet surfing.

Some employers have started limiting access to certain web sites for all employees in an attempt to curtail surfing. If you are caught surfing the Internet at work for personal reasons such as looking at funny videos, funny pictures, or checking your MySpace account, your employer may penalize you by suspending your Internet privileges or you could even be fined.

Surfing the Internet is fun and everyone does it, but to protect yourself, ask your boss about any surfing while working policies they have and keep your surfing restricted to lunch and break times.