In good news for those concerned about our evolving into creatures with enormous thumbs and no legs, a study by private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson found that the average American's time spent viewing/listening to media last year actually dropped in 2006, down 0.5% to only 3,530 hours, or a mere 9.67 hours per day.

The study attributes the decrease to the efficiency of on-demand media such as the internet, where we can find specific content without needing to wade through irrelevant information. Examples of this might be watching a YouTube clip of The Daily Show vs. sitting through the whole half-hour, or reading this blog vs. poring over the Wall Street Journal.

VSS believes that this trend reversal is temporary, but projects growth in time spent at a modest 0.5% per year over the next five years.

The decrease is not reflected in spending in the media industry, however. According to the report, communications spending was up a huge 6.8% in 2006, and averaged 5.9% over the past five years. VSS projects a 6.7% growth rate through 2011.

In marketing dollars, the strongest growth segments were in alternative advertising (no surprise there), which grew 36.6% last year vs. a paltry 2.4% in traditional venues. Other marketing avenues such as direct mail also suffered, up only 5% for the year and 4% over the five-year period.

In positive news for companies such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), VSS expects internet advertising by dollar volume to pass print media in 2011, projecting it will reach almost $62 billion.