Social networks getting more of Americans' time online
New report shows Americans are increasingly spending their time online at social networks and less time with e-mail and instant messaging.
Americans are changing their Internet usage habits and, increasingly, they're spending a bulk of their time on social networks such as Facebook.
It's not a new trend--but the numbers are getting bigger, according to a report released by Nielsen Online on Monday. Social networks led the pack last year with 15.8 percent of our online time spent there. But that figure has grown 43 percent in a year, now up to 22.7 percent of our time. Meanwhile, two other categories--video/movies and online games--both saw double-digit gains in usage time, 12 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
So what did we dump? Well, e-mail and instant messaging took the biggest hits, down 28 percent and 15 percent, respectively. We also scaled down our time on portals, down 19 percent.
Read more of "Nielsen: Americans spend more time on social networks, less time with e-mail" at ZDNet.