Comments on: Surfing has been replaced by what?

Question: Surfing has been replaced by what?

PHINC — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:20:16 -0800

What has the phrase "surfing the web" been replaced by? Have expressed web activities become expressions of specific activities: 'I'm Googling', 'Goofing off on My Space', 'Metafiltering'? Or is there a more general phrase that I'm overlooking?

By: qwip

qwip — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:26:06 -0800

"browsing the Internet".

or

any use of "online".

I'm going online.

I found this online.

Well, you can buy it cheap online...

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:26:28 -0800

The only thing that comes immediately to mind is "I'm reading the Internet."

By: Argyle

Argyle — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:29:12 -0800

I second 'browse'.

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:33:38 -0800

If I ask my girlfriend what's she doing, she'll say she's "looking online", "looking at the Web", "shopping" or "reading online". I guess it has become that much a part of life it's just like "looking" at a catalog or "reading" a magazine.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:33:43 -0800

I just logged on to my internet.

By: sneakin

sneakin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:38:33 -0800

I think a lot of the vocab has evolved to denote specific activities/sites. He commented me/my profile. I blogged it. I wikipedia'd it. I MySpaced/Facebooked her.

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:40:11 -0800

I guess it has become that much a part of life it's just like "looking" at a catalog or "reading" a magazine.

Exactly. While I doubt cutesy phrases are quite retired yet (a lot of people do seem to 'surf' still, for example), the novelty of using the internet has worn off and people are reverting to common utility verbs just like they do with most other everyday activities.

And that's another: "using the Internet", which is as straightforward and natural as it is boring.

By: DMan

DMan — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:40:50 -0800

It could be argued that since our lives are so entwined with the Internet, we're never not on the Information Superhighway in some way.

Now there's food for thought.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:43:47 -0800

I guess I didn't get the memo, because I still surf. Not the net, not the web, not the tubes, not cyberspace or the information superhighway. It's just surfing. There is no risk of confusion, since I do not live in a coastal area and am not someone whom you would expect to find in a wetsuit. The routine part, in which daily-visit sites like MeFi get hit, is sometimes referred to as "making the rounds."

"What are you doing there, mumkin?"
"Nothing in particular. Just surfing."

I do Google things, but that's specific to searching. If it's general undirected consumption of content on the intarwebs, it's surfing.

By: jayder

jayder — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:47:21 -0800

Infosnacking.

By: wyzewoman

wyzewoman — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:53:45 -0800

I still surf. (Too much...)

By: drezdn

drezdn — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:54:11 -0800

Gleaming the tubes.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:54:19 -0800

At work I usually say that I'm "doin' stuff on the fancy thinkin' box".
At home I just say I'm going online.

By: pearlybob

pearlybob — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:55:05 -0800

Like that Jayder!! That's a new one for me. I may steal it!!

By: kcm

kcm — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:57:43 -0800

Go Stumble!

By: Dee Xtrovert

Dee Xtrovert — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:07:06 -0800

I "check" the internet or I'm just "on" the internet.

By: TypographicalError

TypographicalError — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:11:27 -0800

I say surfing the tubes, myself.

By: jayder

jayder — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:11:31 -0800

"Admit it: You know all about the concept of infosnacking"
December 9, 2005
Atlanta Journal and Constitution

By Phil Kloer

... Webster's New World College Dictionary has anointed infosnacking as its 2005 Word of the Year, despite its near-total absence from everyday use. Has it been in The New York Times? Nope. On CNN? Apparently not. Popular slang? Have you ever heard it, or used it?

"It hasn't caught on yet," admitted Mike Agnes, editor in chief of Webster's. But the word of the year isn't about popularity, he explains; there aren't even any plans to add it to the dictionary.

"We try to choose a word that tickles our linguistic funny bone or is significant in the way language reflects culture," Agnes said.

Meanwhile, the New Oxford American Dictionary has its own word of the year and selected "podcasting." As of Thursday, "infosnacking" was getting 637 hits on Google, and "podcasting" was getting more than 35 million. So if it's a popularity contest, it's pretty clear who wins.

"We argue a lot" about choosing a word of the year, said Erin McKean, editor of the Oxford. "There's no hard-and-fast way of measuring this. We look for newness, usefulness, and what was going on in the world at the time."

Asked about infosnacking, McKean said she'd heard of it, but it was never under consideration by Oxford.

Infosnacking, by the way, means "checking e-mail, Googling sports scores, shopping online and surfing the latest headlines" while at work, according to Webster's.

By: Iron Rat

Iron Rat — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:13:47 -0800

Looking at porn.

By: PHINC

PHINC — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:15:43 -0800

Thanks much! these responses are great.

By: shelleycat

shelleycat — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:18:21 -0800

In my house it gets called internetting As in 'are you internetting again?' But yeah, going online or using the internet are the general descriptions I'd use outside the house assuming I'm not describing a more specific activity (my main two at work would be 'literature searching' and 'using the wiki'). Even then I'm not sure I'd bother, it's more likely I'd tell someone I spend too much time playing with my computer than 'using the internet', because the two activities are generally considered to be the same.

By: Rash

Rash — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:19:52 -0800

I didn't get the memo either; the only guy I know who eschews the expression is my friend Luke, an actual in-the-ocean surfer who's a mite peeved at the verb's misuse. Myself, I think of it as "jacking in" after reading any William Gibson.

I also liked the "Leaning Forward" idea that was going around for awhile, to contrast with the "leaning back" style of watching TV.

By: davey_darling

davey_darling — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:20:39 -0800

Mettin' the filter

By: quin

quin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:20:41 -0800

I use "Summoning the Dark Lord who's name shall not be spoken to rain a storm of fire and blood over mine enemys"

Or "browsing the web" when I'm hurried.

By: pupdog

pupdog — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:23:17 -0800

For me it's pretty much just become 'online'. My roommate will call home and ask 'Are you online? Can you look up/find/etc...'.

The answer is almost always yes, it seems.

At work if someone asks, it's usually something smartass - 'communing with the magic voodoo box' is a favorite, but I'm an IT guy and am pretty much going to be close to a computer any time.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:29:21 -0800

It's damn close to just plain "using the computer" these days, since the web must be about 90 percent of what new PCs are used for.

Of course, phones and PDAs and other internet devices will make that wrong soon, too.

This is what they mean by "ubiquitous computing", I guess.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:34:38 -0800

I say I'm "checking my stuff", and that means looking at MetaFilter and AskMe, email, Flickr, the boxscores, and maybe a few friends blogs, all in one go.

By: Daily Alice

Daily Alice — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:38:56 -0800

I never used "surfing".

I'm either "checking my email" or "going online".

By: cmyk

cmyk — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:51:18 -0800

I'm either online or checking email.

By: wallaby

wallaby — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:04:32 -0800

I "play online". I'm not actually playing games but I'm not really doing anything purposeful either. There is very little actual work for me to accomplish online and the little bit that I do need to do has its own words--blogging or writing email.

By: web-goddess

web-goddess — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:05:49 -0800

I'm "reading the Internets" or "checking my sites."

By: k8t

k8t — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:32:03 -0800

Screwing around is being online for my peeps. On the computer too but more negitive connotation.

By: messylissa

messylissa — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:32:17 -0800

I "tool around" or "screw around" online. That, or I just AM online.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:37:41 -0800

It's not an activity - it's a state. I am "on the internet", or not.

Did anyone ever really use "surf" in cold blood? Among my peers it was regarded as a term invented by outsiders with no clue, for use in print articles whose audience had even less clue. "Surf" would never leave our lips without a protective wrapping of hipster sarcasm, in the same way that my very nerdy colleagues and I will exclaim "my internets are broken!" when the office router craps out again.

By: lilac girl

lilac girl — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:42:12 -0800

I say "I'm on the internet" or "I'm internetting." If I find something just browsing, I say "I found it on the internet" rather than "I found it surfing the internet."

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:55:02 -0800

"screwing around"
"wasting time"
"reading crap"
"looking at something stupid online"
"laughing at some idiot"
"reading this article"

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:02:05 -0800

it has not yet been sufficiently replaced

By: RobotHeart

RobotHeart — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:06:54 -0800

I consume the Internet, personally.

In particular, there's a running gag of trying to finish off, only for there to be a lot more in my RSS feeder the next morning. It's like checking my inbox!

By: orangemiles

orangemiles — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:32:06 -0800

I check my pages, just like I check my channels on the tv.

By: crewshell

crewshell — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:52:32 -0800

I also this surfing the web is still used quite often

By: crewshell

crewshell — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:52:56 -0800

Wow. I also THINK "surfing the web" is still used quite often

By: DMan

DMan — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:07:47 -0800

Heh....a conclusion can be drawn that rather than have a term for surfing the web, we should have a term for when you're NOT surfing--because that's the less often case.

Hey guys, I'm offline.

By: bkeene12

bkeene12 — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:37:04 -0800

My kids, age 8 & 6, have started saying "I'm in the net". I don't know where this came from or if they dreamed it up themselves but it is catching on around our house.

By: goshling

goshling — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:41:05 -0800

"I'm on the intermanet", a turn of phrase inspired by Homer Simpson, though I'm unsure that he ever used the word "intermanet" himself.

By: MadamM

MadamM — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:53:04 -0800

I say I'm messing around online usually. I don't usually use some sort of noun-derived verb as far as I know.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:21:16 -0800

"Poking around online." I'll second the "making the rounds" comment.

Really, it depends on who I'm talking to. If I talk to my friends who have similar habits as me, I'll use something more along the lines of "making the rounds," or "browsing around." If it's my mom, on the other hand, I'll be more explicit -- for her, "surfing the web," "browsing the web," or just "reading online articles" typically gets the point across.

By: Miko

Miko — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:39:21 -0800

In my house it gets called internetting

In my house, it gets referred to as "playing computer." This is a resurfacing of the way I talked about any computer activity when I was 8 years old and my dad would take us to his "work" to play Dungeon and Monopoly on his DEC mainframe in 1978. "Dad, when can we go to your work and play computer?"

Outside my little home-world, I say "check my mail," when just wanting to spend 20 minutes doing my daily rounds, or "reading online"/"poking around online" when I want to talk about surfing.

By: unknowncommand

unknowncommand — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:40:25 -0800

"What did you do all day?"
"Internet"
I think that means I'm using it as a noun-activity.

By: unmake

unmake — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 22:36:07 -0800

Usually I'd say 'browsing', or something along the lines of 'wasting time on the internet'. Despite experience dating back to Mosaic (and Cello), I've never adopted the 'surfing' terminology, which at least is better than anything referencing 'cyberspace'..

By: chiababe

chiababe — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 22:52:39 -0800

"I'm internetting."

By: k8lin

k8lin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:14:26 -0800

I always say "I'm Googling around," whether or not I'm actually using Google. Guess that they've really branded my internet experience, haven't they?

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 01:28:47 -0800

I sometimes say that I am "Grazing," especially if I'm just sort of faffing around.

By: goo

goo — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 01:36:37 -0800

And I think the faffing about is the key to surfing - clicking on wherever the links take you without a specific goal in mind. You can surf specific sites - wikipedia is great for this, and metafilter is a great starting point for surfing, but the term doesn't apply to any internet activity undertaken with a purpose except that of faffing about.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 05:27:33 -0800

I will often say that I'm checking my email even though that amounts to less than 10 percent of the time I spend online.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:56:16 -0800

I just say "I'm online."

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:56:40 -0800

Or, as a verb, "I'm going online."

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 08:07:41 -0800

'Farting around on the internet/online' or 'Doodling.'

By: TochterAusElysium

TochterAusElysium — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:01:41 -0800

Just "reading" or "reading online" since that pretty much represents 90% of what I do online.

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:53:25 -0800

Despite the inclusion of "infosnacking" in the Webster's New World College Dictionary, the term has almost no use whatsoever outside discussion of that dictionary, discussion of the word itself, or blatant attempts to spread the word. It was an absurd choice for word of the year and every lexicographer I know was scratching their head going, "WTF?"

By: darksasami

darksasami — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 11:01:21 -0800

"Surfing the net" has not been supplanted, at least in the major technology company for which I work. It's a major part of "slacking." There is no irony involved in using the term; it's just a thing you can do on a computer. The metaphor has long since been forgotten; it's practically the same thing as channel-surfing.

"Browsing" is more purposeful, surprisingly enough. Surfing is looking at random crap, whereas browsing is generally a specific site. You don't browse the Web, but you might browse Wikipedia, MeFi or TVTropes.

"Infosnacking" is pretentious wanking by the people who brought you Web 2.0.

By: hot soup girl

hot soup girl — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:21:20 -0800

"I AM NOW ENTERING CYBERSPACE."

No, not really. I say, "I'm just gonna check my email. I'll be a couple of minutes". And then no one sees me for the rest of the evening.

By: Netzapper

Netzapper — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:26:41 -0800

"Main screen turn on."

By: Rash

Rash — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:03:07 -0800

"What did you do all day?"

"Internet"

Reminds me of a report I heard from Russia maybe nine years ago. In thickly accented English, the voice of a merchant said:

"Everybody want to buy computer.
Everybody want make Internet."

By: ranglin

ranglin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:19:39 -0800

I agree with others that I still use the term "surfing the web" or "surfing the net"... Maybe it's not as outdated as you think?

Also, gotta agree with many others that "checking my mail" is actually a euphemism for me these days, involving not only checking my mail, but also logging onto facebook, checking my RSS feeds, reading an online comic or two and even checking AskMe for questions if I feel I can get away with it before the wife says "how long's it take to check your mail?! :)

By: jmnugent

jmnugent — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:56:25 -0800

I'm torn between :

Netzapper - "Main screen turn on"
AND
Iron Rat - "Looking at porn"

oh wait.. those 2 things happen sequentially ;P

Seriously though.. whenever anyone asks me, I usually say that i'm "playing on the computer"... which really means I'm surfing the internet, chatting with friends, checking email, listening to music, watching TV (in a window),etc,etc.

By: phredgreen

phredgreen — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:33:20 -0800

I've been geeking out for years now.