Nielsen’s latest report for internet use in the United Kingdom shows that social networking comprises close to one-fourth of all user time spent online. For a perspective on how this has grown, Nielsen notes that time spent on social networking among UK citizens was just 8.8% in 2007. There has hence been a 159% jump in the three years since then.
Here is how the time spent online can be divided among the several internet activities
Social Networks/Blogs : 22.7%
Email : 7.2%
Games : 6.9%
Instant Messaging : 4.9%
Classifieds/Auction : 4.7%
Portals : 4.0%
Search : 4.0%
Software Info/Products : 3.4%
News : 2.8%
Adult : 2.7%
Others : 36.8%