According to the 2010 USC Annenberg Digital Future Study, half of Internet users who go online use micro blogging sites like Twitter. The study, which examines the influence of the Internet and online technology on Americans, found that fifty-five percent of Twitter users would rather see web advertising than pay for content. The same study found that 70 percent of internet users found internet advertising "annoying." "Users express strong negative views about online advertising, but they still prefer seeing ads as an alternative to paying for content," said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. "Consumers really want free content without advertising, but ultimately they understand that content has to be paid for -- one way or another."

In an increase for the second year in a row for the decade-old study, sixty-two percent of Internet users who read newspapers offline said they would miss the print edition of their newspaper if it ceased to exist. Eighteen percent of users said they’ve stopped a subscription to a newspaper or magazine because they now get the same or related content online, a decline from twenty-two percent in 2008.  Also in the study, fifty-six percent of Internet users ranked newspapers as important or very important sources of information to them, down from sicty percent in 2008. And fifty-nine percent of Internet users said they would read the online edition of a publication if its print edition ceased publication.
 
The survey also touches on issues of public trust. In a new low level for the Digital Future Project, sixty-one percent of users said that only half or less of online information is reliable. Further, fifty-three percent of Internet users said that most or all of the information provided by search engines is reliable and accurate. That percentage is down from the peak of sicty-four percent who found information provided by search engines reliable in 2006. Curiously, only forty-six percent of users said they have some trust or a lot of trust in the Internet in general. Nine percent of users have no trust at all in the Internet.

The study also found that the Internet is used by more than eighty-two percent of Americans for the first time. The highest internet penetration -- one hundred percent -- is in users under the age of 24. And Great Recession notwithstanding, sixty-five percent of Internet users now buy online, books are among the top online purchases.