The survey was conducted by the US research firm in the second half of 2009 on 800 people aged 12 to 17. The survey found that 62 per cent of the respondents went online primarily to read news and gather information about current events. During big-time occurrences such as general elections, this number went up to 77 per cent.

Macro-blogging has declined among teens and young adults while micro-blogging with status updates has increased. Since 2006, blogging among teens has dropped from 28 per cent to 14 per cent. The research says about 86 per cent of social-networking teens post comments on social network sites, while only 8 per cent use Twitter.

Teens and adults access the internet not only from a desktop computer, but through portable devices such as mobile phones and game consoles as well, the study found. Facebook is the most used online social network as 73 per cent of online adults have a profile on the site.