NEW YORK: US consumers are spending more and more time online at the expense of traditional media, with social networks and online video the fastest growing usage areas, according to new research.

Data from GfK and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, reported by eMarketer, indicate that the average daily time spent online rose from just under three hours in 2011 to three hours and seven minutes in 2012.

Consumers spent an extra seven minutes on social networks, a total of 37 minutes daily. Online video saw a similar increase, from 17 minutes to 24 minutes, thanks to the growing amount of television and film content available to viewers.

Email continued to occupy a substantial part of consumers' time, rising five minutes to a total of 33 minutes. Other areas seeing significant usage included search, on 22 minutes, and online games, on 17 minutes. 

News and comment all recorded times of less than ten minutes, with blogs most prominent (seven minutes), followed by online radio (six minutes), online newspapers (six minutes) and online magazines (three minutes).

Among the traditional media, video games was the only one to show an increase in daily usage, rising nine minutes to a total of 48 minutes.

Television remained the most-used channel, but saw a decline of one minute to five hours and five minutes. Meanwhile, radio was down ten minutes to one hour and 50 minutes.

Newspapers lost one minute, falling to 18 minutes, while magazines remained steady on 14 minutes.

But these figures do not reveal the way in which some media interact with each other. When the IAB asked how people found out about TV shows that could be watched online, 26% cited social media sites.

This was the third placed source, behind word of mouth, on 49%, and advertising, on 30%.

Data sourced from eMarketer; additional content by Warc staff