New data from comScore measures social networking’s share of the total time that US web users spend online. Numbers have doubled since July 2007, when 8% of US internet users’ time was spent on social networks. Now a whopping 16% of that time is dedicated to social networking via sites including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr.
To put this in perspective, social networking represented about 1 out of every 12 minutes spent online in 2007; today, it accounts for 1 out of every 6 minutes spent online. comScore reports that Facebook’s average U.S. visitor engagement has grown from 4.6 hours to 6.3 hours per month over the past year.
According to Mashable, social networking use has increased around 25% in the last year alone.
While Facebook’s massive growth is a driving force behind these climbing numbers, other platforms – LinkedIn, Tumblr and Twitter – all hit record highs in May of 2011. Tumblr saw 166% growth in the last year, while LinkedIn grew 58% in the US within the same time period.
