• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 11, 2010

Any doubts about the ascendancy of the Internet should be removed by a new global survey from TNS called "Digital Life," which found that the Internet is the most-used medium among people with online access. Specifically, around the world 61% of people with online access used the Internet every day, versus 54% for TV, 36% for radio, and 32% for newspapers.

In other words, to know the Internet is to love her. Of course, not everyone has Internet access, but that day may not be far off, given very rapid growth rates in Internet penetration in the developing world. What's more, Internet users in the developing world tend to be more frequent users than their peers in the developed world, with 56% of Egyptian Internet users and 54% of Chinese Internet users engaging in online interactive activities, versus just 20% in Japan.

This interesting trend carries over into activities like blogging, with 88% of Chinese Internet users and 51% of Brazilian Internet users saying they have written their own blog or posted to an online forum, compared to just 32% of their U.S. counterparts. Meanwhile 92% of Thai Internet users, 88% of Malaysians, and 87% of Vietnamese have uploaded photos to a social network or photo-sharing site, compared to just 48% of German Internet users and 28% of Japanese.

Social networks are popular across the board, according to TNS, although specific usage patterns show considerable variation between countries. The heaviest users are Malaysians, at nine hours per week, followed by Russians, at 8.1 hours per week, and Turks, at 7.7 hours per week. Malaysians also lead in number of "friends" on social networks, with an average 233, followed by Brazilians with 231. At the other end of the spectrum are Japanese, with just 29 friends, and Tanzanians, with 38.

Mobile is the next big thing for social networks: in the U.S., 33% of online consumers expect to do more social networking via mobile over the next year, compared to 26% expecting to do more social networking via PC or laptop. In Australia the numbers are 26% and 44%, respectively, and in Sweden, 28% and 53%.