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Be it surfing the net, doing work, playing games, what do you call such person who loves to stick in front of the computer?

I know of some word like netizen and cybernaut but mostly they are referring to someone who is Internet-obsessed.

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  • 15
    Loser? Now please excuse me, I have Reddit, Stackoverflow and Hacker News to read, and stuff to add to Pinterest. Then I'll be coming back here.
    – silves89
    Nov 25, 2011 at 9:12
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    Possible related: english.stackexchange.com/questions/39296/…
    – JeffSahol
    Nov 25, 2011 at 12:36
  • If they are skillful at using the computer then they could be a 'power user' or a 'superuser'.
    – A E
    Nov 7, 2014 at 10:27

4 Answers 4

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From merriam-webster.com:
mouse potato (noun) slang
: a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer

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  • 9
    Never heard this before, but I love it.
    – Polynomial
    Nov 25, 2011 at 9:51
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    Marked as correct answer. like what Polynomial comment - kind of surprise to see such word.
    – Larry Morries
    Nov 29, 2011 at 7:03
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    That's very clever :) But given the parallel with 'couch potato' I would say it runs the risk of being offensive.
    – Lynn
    Dec 3, 2011 at 3:44
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I personally think Dian's answer is brilliant, but if you're looking for a more technical word (excuse the pun), you might consider "technophile".

technophile (noun)
a person very enthusiastic about technology, especially one who enjoys the advances in computer and media technology.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technophile

It's not precisely someone who sits in front of a computer all day, but one would expect that to be inferred.

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    +1 for technophile. The word looks very "Techno"!
    – Larry Morries
    Nov 29, 2011 at 7:02
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A (computer) nerd or geek, perhaps?

Note that the connotations of both of these terms may vary between different regions and social groups, and that both may be considered pejorative to varying degree. (Indeed, this is likely to be true to some extent of any term describing a lifestyle or a group of people which some others may hold in contempt.) Also note that both terms can have the broader meaning of "a person deeply interested in a particular subject, often to the point of limiting social interaction", and that, depending on context and the reader's/listener's background, the default subject may or may not be assumed to be specifically computers.

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  • I've heard "computer geek", so that works as a good disambiguation. It has been my experience that "nerd" is used less often in recent times.
    – TecBrat
    Sep 10, 2013 at 1:41
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While one could use terms such as Geek, mouse potatoe, Technophile, or Computer Whizz, these are all subjective, and regional.

e.g. a mouse potatoes would be thought of as a kind of potatoe in the UK, most likely to elicit the question what do they taste like? and a technophile could be someone obsessed with technology despite not owning a desktop computer.

So there are no words that fit directly into what you want reliably, that aren't in some way ambiguous, culturally dependant on location, or overlapping elsewhere.

Instead, it's better to use the words classifying people based on what they do on their computers. e.g. blogger, graphics designer, gamer, programmer, typist, etc

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  • +1 Yeah, I do agree with you that the terms may look subjective and regional and would be better to classify them based on what they do but I would certainly like to have a word or two to collectively describe them excluding those who are in their jobs.
    – Larry Morries
    Nov 29, 2011 at 7:05

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