Part of my job is to keep up with internet gossip (latest Paris Hilton debauchery at a club, that sorta thing), so it's actually ENCOURAGED for me to surf the net. It's funny. Now I have a staff, and a couple of times a week I remind them to keep abreast of gawker, defamer, etc... I want them up on their gossip.
If I'm not busy working, I'm probably surfing the net. Some days hardly at all. Some days WAAAY too much.
I am literally on the net the entire time I am at work. But the net is part of my job as I work on the external and internal sites. Our tools are so slow and go down so often, there isn't much to do but surf.
Look when most people posted. That should give you a clue. Not many of us at work now. Or posting either. Makes things dull around here on weekends. I'm not "on the clock" in the conventional sense; as long as I don't have class or a meeting or rehearsal, I can arrange my time like I see fit. So there's no such thing as "surfing on company time", since what I have to get done has to get done but it's my business when I do it.
Tthe Internet IS my work. I work the Internet. I Internet the work. I work on the Internet. I am working on Internet stuff now. Internet? Yes. Work? Maybe.
noize, The first thing you need to do when you get a real job is to become buddies with your IT Network Administrator.