Americans love their social networking and online gaming more than they do their personal e-mail, according to new Nielsen research. Of course, communicating on Facebook and Twitter replaces e-mail for a lot of people, but Nielsen says not to fear the death of e-mail or instant messaging just yet. That’s because user behavior varies when relying on a PC versus a mobile device.
E-mailing over mobile devices rose from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent from May 2009 to May 2010, Nielsen discovered. The BlackBerry – which, despite its maker’s grim future and pending shutdown in the United Arab Emirates, continues to dominate, especially among businesspeople – is likely to thank, even though Nielsen didn’t track specific devices. On a laptop or PC, though, e-mail popularity did fall, becoming the third-heaviest activity online as it falls victim to the lure of social networking and online gaming.
Overall, Americans spend almost one quarter of their time online on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and on blogs. That’s a 43 percent increase, Nielsen said.
“Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40 percent of US online time is spent on just three activities – social networking, playing games and e-mailing, leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie," said Nielsen analyst Dave Martin.
