Social Media, followed shortly by gaming, are dominating the race for the biggest time sinkholes online this side of the globe, according to a recent study from Nielsen titled “What Do Americans Do Online.”

The marketing research and analysis firm kept tabs on 200,000 Americans users online and compared their June 2010 results against the June 2009 findings, showing that consumption of media content and trips to social networking sites eat up about 23% of online use which shows a significant jump from its previous 16% standing. That’s a 43% increase on the time spent on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

This, of course, shouldn’t come as a surprise with the Zuck recently announcing Facebook recent achievement with their 500 millionth user and Twitter declaring their 20 billionth tweet sent. It only bolsters what we already know and currently seeing unfold: that social media is fast becoming the go-to sites of many users online. Either they’ve indeed become the primary sources of news and information or that they’re turning into the primary location where people waste time online.

Online gaming, meanwhile, comes in at a far second with a 10% leap from 9% to 10%, further trumping e-mail from its top spot as the previous American pastime headliner to a meager 8% out of the who chunk.

“Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the Web, 40% of U.S. 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.

Nearly every person, organization and facet of the planet has been living on the cloud through Wikis, blogs, photos, cartographic data and, of course, social networking sites. The Internet, for its own part, is a dynamic realm, becoming truly social in that it fosters interactions between its inhabitants and flourishes on their continuous presence customer engagements online.

This gives everyone online great opportunities for growth in nearly every aspect of the term—a clear benefit many businesses are leveraging on. Companies who are already on the social media or gaming bandwagons, meanwhile, shouldn’t slouch either, as stats should be regularly measured and strategies must be updated accordingly.

Obviously, these two markets are on the spotlight as they take a huge chunk out of user/consumer time. Businesses need to grab onto this opportunity to better target a core demographic that spends significant time online. It’s a strategy that logically gives rise to the advantages of the flourishing platforms to better build their brands, bone up on their online reputation and market their wares on the social landscape instead of wastefully funneling their funds into outdated media channels.

Tags: Nielsen, Online Gaming, Research, Social Media, Studey