A study released Wednesday by Harris Interactive shows that (adult) Americans have spent an average of 13 hours per week connected to the Internet.

Made in October 2009, soon after the financial crisis and the presidential election the U.S., the telephone poll of 2029 adults and found that about 24% of them are online for 24 hours a week or more, while only 20% reported using the web for two hours or less per week.

Harris Interactive, which conducts research on the use of the Internet since 1995, noticed a considerable increase in hours spent by Americans on the Internet in recent years. Between 1999 and 2002, users spent about 7 hours a week online, a figure that rose to 8 or 9 hours between 2003 and 2006 and reached 11 hours per week in 2007, according to the Trading Markets site.

The survey also reveals that adults between 20 and 39 years are those that are more hours a week online for about 18 hours, followed by age group from 25 to 29 years, which are connected by 17 hours per week on average.

Besides the time spent on the web, the research also questioned about purchases over the Internet and found that half of respondents had bought something for ecommerce in the last month, including 62% aged 20 to 39 years and 56% between 40 and 49.

According to the website SOA World, the increase in hours per week that American adults are online can have several reasons, since the increase in applications for the Internet, online videos and even ecommerce shopping for financial reasons, since in times of crisis financial online has become a lower cost compared with leaving home.

Image credit.

Via: TechCrunch.