YNOT – Fully 65 percent of adult internet users in the U.S. now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61 percent one year ago.

The figure comes from a new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and marks a dramatic increase from the first time the project surveyed users about social networking sites in February 2005. At that time, just 8 percent of internet users — or 5 percent of all adults — said they engaged in online social networking.

Among internet users, social networking sites are most popular with women and young adults, but the biggest growth over the past year occurred among adults over age 30. In that group, the ranks of wired seniors grew the most: 33 percent of those ages 65 and older now use social-networking sites, compared with 26 percent one year ago.

Also revealed in the downloadable Pew report are statistics for other age groups:

• 83 percent of internet users ages 18-29 use online social networks.
• 70 percent of 30-49 year-olds use the networks.
• 51 percent of 50-64 year-olds admit engaging others via social networks.

Looking at usage on a typical day, 43 percent of online adults in the U.S. use social networking, up from 38 percent last year. Out of all the daily online activities about which Pew surveyed, only email (which 61 percent of internet users access on a typical day) and search engines (which 59 percent use on a typical day) are used more frequently than social networking tools.

The frequency of social networking site usage among young adult internet users remained stable over the past year: 61 percent of online Americans ages 18-29 now use SNS on a typical day, compared with 60 percent one year ago. However, among the Baby Boomer-aged segment of internet users (ages 50-64), daily social network usage on a typical day grew a significant 60 percent (from 20 percent to 32 percent).

“The graying of social networking sites continues, but the oldest users are still far less likely to be making regular use of these tools,” said Mary Madden, a senior research specialist with the project and co-author of the report. “While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool part of their daily routine.”

When social networking users were asked for one word to describe their experiences using social networking sites, “good” was the most common response. Overall, positive responses far outweighed the negative and neutral words that were associated with social networking sites: More than half of the respondents used positive terms. Users repeatedly described their experiences as “fun,” “great,” “interesting” and “convenient.” Less common were superlatives such as “astounding,” “necessity” and “empowering.”

“Social networking sites continue to cement their place as a significant part of mainstream online life,” said Kathryn Zickuhr, a research specialist and co-author of the report. “Even as some users find their experiences with social networking sites frustrating or overwhelming, most seem to view the services positively on the whole.”