According to a recent report by the Nielsen Company, the time an average American spent on social networking and blog sites such as Facebook and Myspace nearly tripled in 2009. This study, which cites the company’s research from August ‘09 found that social networking and blogs account for 17% of all time spent on the internet, up from 6% a year earlier.

Perhaps not surprisingly, advertising spending on these sites has also surged. Accordingly, the estimated $108M spent on sites such as Facebook and Myspace signaled a 119% increase from a year before. In terms of total online advertising spending, social networks and blog sites now account for 15% of total online ad spending. This is significant given the global recession.

According to Jon Gibs, VP of Media and Insights at Nielsen:”This growth suggest a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used…while video and text content remain central to the Web experience – the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth.” This echoes recent findings by Netpop Research, which claims people have replaced time spent on traditional entertainment, with time spent communicating online (contributing to social media, social networking, blogging), and that out of the 105 Million American broadband users, 76% now contribute to social sites.

via NeilsenWire