Survey: People spend more time using social media than email

By David Silverberg

Web users around the world are spending slightly more time on social media sites compared to email, a new survey from TNS Digital Life found.

In September 2010, surfers spent 4.6 hours a week on social sites and chalked up 4.4 hours on email, eMarketer reports. Other online activities respondents said they did weekly included surfing the Web for “Interest” and “Knowledge” and “News.”

According to the survey, email isn’t going away anytime soon. ”Users are still significantly more likely to send and receive email messages on a daily basis than they are to do any other activity,” eMarketer wrote.

Three-quarters of survey respondents check their inbox every day compared to less than half who go to social media sites with the same frequency.

The TNS survey also provided [PDF] insight into social media usage. Respondents were asked what social media activity they wanted to use more, and 42 percent said they wanted to stream more music and video. The least popular activities to pursue included microblogging and responding to blogs.

eMarketer says more than 61 percent of frequent Internet users globally having a profile on a social network.

TNS says the study is the result of analyzing data from 46 countries in September 2010. A total of 48,804 people aged 16 to 60 years old were interviewed.