According to Nielsen research, an increasing number of Americans are spending more than a quarter of their online time on social networking sites.

Some 36 percent of US consumers spend 36% of their time online on social networking sites, instant messaging and personal emails. The interesting part is that the internet audience is getting quite a bit older. It appears that the over-50 population has eclipsed teens in terms of social networking and this is quite a surprise.

As it turns out, older users have a few decades worth of friends and they also spend more time online than their kids.

Online gaming on social networking is also growing in popularity and it currently accounts for 10 percent of time spent online, while eight percent is reserved for email. It turns out that half of all Americans play online games.

More here.