Americans Logged 101,000 Years of Facebook Time in Single Month

A report released Sept. 11 by Nielsen, the media research and ratings company, reveals that Americans are spending more time than ever perusing social networks and blogs. Unsurprisingly, the report found that "Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other site."

In May, the most recent month for which data were collected, Americans spent 53.5 billion total minutes on Facebook — or roughly 101,720 years. As there were 140 million unique visitors to the site that month, the average user spent 382 minutes, or 6.4 hours, browsing Facebook in May.

The Nielsen report profiled the type of Internet user who is most likely to use Facebook. Based on its findings, that person is an Asian-American female between the ages of 18 and 34; she lives in New England, makes less than $50,000 per year, and has at least a bachelor's degree.

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.