I detest the phrase 'surfing the Net' to refer to using the Internet.
My theory is that the term is redundant because it refers to 'Net surfers'. These are usually random, directionless, time-wasters with nothing better to do than hyperlink from site to site.
They feed off a search engine only when they get to a dead end, putting every site in their bookmark but having no real intention of ever revisiting the sites that they mark off.
The billing mechanism of most Internet service providers encourages this sort of activity. People feel they must rack up lots of time looking at useless sites at random to meet a quota of 30 hours or whatever per month that they pay for up front.
Surfing is a direct derivative of the bad habits institutionalised by the channel-surfing TV fans who became fatter and lazier with the introduction of the infrared remote control.
If you look at any advertisement, newspaper or magazine article for a modem, Internet service or software search engine, nowhere will you see a graphical representation of the TV channel surfer as a classic surfing convert. You will always see a caricature of the wave surfer.
These board surfers, who stand up on chunks of brightly coloured fibreglass or compressed foam amid crashing waves on beaches around the world, are fit, healthy, sun-tanned and eminently marketable.
