The Internet has come a long way since its beginnings; however, it’s hard not to notice the amount of young adults who use it now purely for games, various blogs, or social networking sites. Although this probably wasn’t quite what society had in mind in the beginning; now it’s evident it’s where we stand as noted in a recent study.

According to a report by Pew (News - Alert) Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, the majority of young adults use the Internet to pass time and random fun. The report found that 53 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds go online to simple do nothing. Meanwhile, only 12 percent over the age of 65 said they went online the previous day for no particular reason and 27 percent, between the ages of 50 and 64, responded the same as well.

So, what could the young adults possibly be doing everyday wasting their time? Well, according to the Pew study their research center on the Internet and American life has been tracking these surveys from 2000 to 2011.

In 2001 the graph shows the young age group at a lesser 20 percent and by 2006 it had shot up to about 35 percent. Interesting to note that popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace (News - Alert) had made a regular following by then. In August, Pew conducted a research on the frequency of adult users and social networking sites. The report stated that 61 percent of users under the age 30 used social networking sites on a typical day.

 The study from the Pew Research Center says three main factors are the cause for this: wider availability of broadband, proliferation of Internet video, and the increase of social networking.

“The trend also suggest the degree to which the Internet has become a competitor to all kinds of other leisure activities that are pursued on other kinds of media,” the report states. “Still, the competition is fuzzy because most other kinds of leisure pursuits that can be digitized – from reading to game playing to ‘watching TV’ and ‘listening to radio’– are now available online.”

The recent figures were conducted from a landline and cell phone survey, from July 25 to August 26. The survey included English and Spanish and approximately 2,260 adults over the age of 18 participated in the survey.