MDN[0] says: > Glyphs are taken from the default user interface font on a given platform. Because typographic traditions vary widely across the world, this gen

MDN[0] says: > Glyphs are taken from the default user interface font on a given platform. Because typographic traditions vary widely across the world, this generic is provided for typefaces that don't map cleanly into the other generics. So it might have been used to make the snippet "truly" universal for the developer using it. That said, I believe it would be better to choose the font family based on the content. Even if a viewer is from a place where Serif/San-Serif/etc. doesn't make sense, they are still viewing the same content as anyone else. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-family https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-family