May monthly poll - How much of your time on the computer is offline?

For the month of May we thought it would be interesting to see how much time you spend offline when on your computer. With the Internet and other online activities being the most common activities while on a computer and broadband with connections always active, how much time are you offline? Feel free to talk about why you go offline, what you do while offline, why you stay offline, etc.

All past monthly polls and results can also be found on the Computer Hope poll page.

[Global Moderator]

Unless I'm on wireless and without my charger, I'm always online - either on IM, or simply surfing.

What about you, Nathan?

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

Well, technically, I am always online because I have an always-on connection.  I turn off the modem when I go to bed and I don't have to turn it back on, but my wife usually already has it on by the time I start my computer back up.  But for what it's worth, I do plenty of things that don't require a connection; I often get caught up in a game of Mole Control or Plants Vs. Zombies.  And I do a lot of writing for "work" and cataloging because I'm a nerd.

Well, technically, I am always online because I have an always-on connection.

Same for me.
I do things which don't involve a connection to the internet, such as playing single player games ... other than that I think all my computer usage involves an internet connection.

Advancing from dial-up Internet service to DSL years ago basically resulted in always being online while using the computer.  However, my first DSL service worked different than my later service.  I can't recall the details now - had something to do with PPOE - but, with the first DSL service, I had to install software that basically emulated connecting and disconnecting in a manner similar to dial-up.  So, even though I could have been online continuously, I usually was not.  Later, when the DSL service changed to the way it currently works, I'm connected as soon as I start the computer and always online.  And, that's the typical mode of operation for me now.

What about you, Nathan?

I voted "Never", like most I'm assuming I too am online and active 24/7, usually have chatbots going all the time and when I'm working I'm usually streaming some form of online radio (usually Pandora).

I voted "Never", like most I'm assuming I too am online and active 24/7, usually have chatbots going all the time and when I'm working I'm usually streaming some form of online radio (usually Pandora).

You seem to be implying a different definition of "being online" here.  If you mean that the computer user constantly has some Internet activity going on, then I would have voted differently.  Just because I have a continuous Internet connection does not mean I always have some data flowing in or out over my Internet connection.

[Global Moderator]

Congrats on the 10k mark, Soybean

Thanks, CD.    The post counter actually hit 10K when I posted at  http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,104062.0.html. 

[Moderator]

Congrats Soybean ! !

Cake for everyone ! !

 

Absolutely!  Hope a fruity one will do. 



Of course, 10K pales in comparison to your actual count, which must be some multiple of 10K.  As I recall, you had your count reset to 0 at least twice.

I came to answer the poll.

I stay for the cake.

 

Every few months I have a few hours of complete loss of connectivity on the ISP side (you'd think this might be a problem, but it's at around 2-4 AM). How much it affects me depends on what I was doing at the time- several times I've been actively working on my site, and that caused some problems. If I'm working on one of my desktop applications (which I could work on just as well without a connection) I simply lose the resource of the internet to search for information, which isn't as bad as it might sound- I rarely need to look much up these days unless I'm working on a set of API functions I haven't dealt with before. And when I do, I have the vastly under-estimated off-line MSDN library installation.

This brings me to an interesting phase- for about 2 years I didn't have any internet connection at all. the April 2000 MSDN library essentially became my "Internet". if I had a curiousity, I'd search the library. There are a LOT of gems of information and content in there.

It got to the point where I was so eager for information I just paged through the KB articles. I'm sure that has come in handy more then once.

P.S: I voted never, though, because a periodic and unintentional outage in service hardly counts Besides, my laptop is almost always running F&H, which requires a connection.

I voted never. I'm rarely not using the internet in some form. I either have music streaming sites or Windows Live Messenger open most of the time, whatever I'm doing.

It's weird because I never used to use the internet at all but now I'm on there nearly all the time I'm on the computer.

Although my connection is always on, I chose 1-5 hrs. This time is spent mainly on such things as sorting music, playing a few offline games, and fooling around in PowerPoint.  And, when I include running my anti-malware, anti-virus etc. programs, it probably averages out to somewhere around 2-3 hrs. per day.

I don't necessarily go online first thing after turning on my computer, but once I do go online I tend to keep it open no matter what else I'm doing because at a moment's notice I may NEED to know something.  I capitalize the word because "need" is more like a strong want, rather than an actual need.

However, when I stopped my internet service last summer for what was supposed to be a couple of days and then realized it was going to be a lot longer, I went out and bought a Motorola Karma because my Moto Razr V3 had tortuously slow internet.  I use my phone far more for internet than anything else (besides checking the time).  Because, when you NEED to know, you Need to know.