Nielsen recently released a slew of 2009 consumer electronic data from their numerous 2009 surveys and studies. There are some interesting Twitter and Facebook stats here along with the sheer number of people and amount of time being used to access social networking and online video sites. Here are the U.S. social networking and Internet usage stats:

Social Networking

• Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user
• Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and older
• Twitter grew 500% year-over-year
• Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%
• The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office
• 32% of all mobile web users visited a social network

Internet

• 195 million: Active U.S. Internet users
• 160.3 million: People who accessed the Internet via a broadband connection: (93.3%… up 16% from 2008)
• 138.4 million: Unique viewers of video (up 11.4% from 2008)
• 11.2 billion: Total online video streams viewed monthly (up 17% from 2008)
• 200.1 minutes: Average time spent viewing online video per viewer monthly (up 12.5% from 2008)

For all the talk about social media use and growth over the last several years, it’s always good to get a look at the numbers to see how far it’s come. A recent report by Harris Interactive has some interesting stats about the adoption of social networking sites Facebook and MySpace as well as the number of Americans who are on Twitter.

I took the stats (detailed below) and put them on Seth Godin’s product adoption lifecycle. As you can see from the image, Facebook is about to cross over the hump while Twitter is just past the innovator phase and into the early adopters phase. With all the hype over Twitter in mass media, it will be interesting to see if Twitter moves into the orange section more quickly than other technologies.

Here are the numbers. According to the study:

• 49% of all Americans over the age of 18 are on Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace

Specifically for Facebook and MySpace use:

• 74% of 18-34 year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
• 47% of 35-44 year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
• 41% of 45-54 year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
• 24% of 55+ year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace

As for Twitter…

• 8% of 18-34 year olds use Twitter
• 7% of 35-44 year olds use Twitter
• 4% of 45-54 year olds use Twitter
• 1% of 55+ year olds use Twitter

I know this is an understatement, but I’m going to say it anyway. Twitter is growing like crazy. In the last year Twitter has grown over 1300%. It’s jumped from a million users to over seven million users in a year. No wonder we see the fail whale so much. Those are some serious stats!

As Twitter’s grown at this ridiculous rate, it’s been interesting to observe the way new people are using it. Here are a few types of Twitter users I’ve identified that you probably want to avoid, or at least make sure you’re not one. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Name: Awesomists
Location: You wish you were here.
Bio: My life is awesome.
What are you doing? Sipping a skinny mocha latte and watching whales from my celebrity friend’s yacht.

Name: Unoriginals
Location: Where you were yesterday.
Bio: My tweets are your tweets. I don’t have anything interesting to say myself.
What are you doing? RT the latest thing to come across my feed reader in the last five minutes.

Name: Hypsters
Location: Who cares. You just need to buy what I’m selling.
Bio: Buy my stuff. Hire me. Make six figures in 12 hours. I’m going to make you famous.
What are you doing? The same thing I tweeted an hour ago…links to my blog about my secrets to business success.

Name: Philosophacators
Location: I’m too busy thinking to notice where I am.
Bio: I’m pretty smart…and deep…and sensitive…and don’t forget smart too.
What are you doing? Never milk a cow with only one udder.

Name: Minutiaists
Location: Latitude and longitude of my exact location at this very moment.
Bio: My day, all day, everyday, 140 characters at a time.
What are you doing? Woke up at 6:42. Did number 1. Got a shower. Water took longer to warm up than usual. Shampoo, no conditioner. Same towel as yesterday.