Highlights from the report include information showing that virtual friendships are now the norm for many people across the Western world. Industry website Herd said the study found that people from the UK have an average of 17 online-only friends - representing about 25 per cent of their friends in total.
Surprisingly, those between the ages of 35 and 44 had higher proportions of online-only friends, with 33 per cent of their pals being online, than younger age groups. Americans see their number of online-only friends at 20 per cent, while Australians have the highest percentage at 40 per cent.
And when it's time to revel in our time off, those of us in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand are now spending between a quarter to a third of our leisure time online.
"Based on TNS's data, in the US 30% of customers' free time is being spent in a medium where they have no exposure to traditional big bucks marketing campaigns," wrote TNS.
The survey found that in particular, British housewives are spending 47 per cent of their leisure time on the Internet. UK housewives spend more time online than the Chinese (44 per cent) and Koreans (40 per cent). The rest of Britain spends about 28 per cent of their free-time on the Internet.
The stats from the TNS report also support recent evidence from a US-focused Pew Research report that found many people believe blogs lack credibility when it comes to reporting current events.
The Pew Research study found that 38 per cent of people trusted online news, but that trust did not extend to blogs.
"While between 20-40% of consumers in Western countries read and contribute to blogs, they by and large take what they read with a pinch of salt," Herd reported. Globally, only about 10 per cent of people report that they trust blogs for news.
So it seems that people are logging on to exchange stories and gossip but that doesn't mean that their trust extends to factual information.
