The Internet is killing old media, especially television. It's the accepted wisdom of the day, but the truth is a little more complicated than that. According to a new Nielsen study, the rise of "social TV" -- or watching television while sharing opinions around social media's digital water cooler -- is helping boost awareness and viewing time of couch potatoes, especially among Hispanics.

Nielsen, known for studying the TV viewing habits of Americans for decades, put a twist on their latest study of television consumers. The research company looked at how social media use, especially on so-called "second screen" devices like tablets, smartphones, and laptops that viewers keep by their side while watching a show, affected the viewing habits of participants.

What they found was pretty interesting. A quarter of TV viewers in Nielsen's 2013 study said they were more aware of television programs because of their use of social media over the past year, and 15 percent said TV was more enjoyable when social media was involved in some capacity. Both of those figures represented an upward trend over the year prior, where fewer than one in five said social media helped them be more aware of programs, and just over one out of 10 said social media made them enjoy television more.

And that's not all. Nearly every avenue of watching television content experienced a boost when social media was involved, including 12 percent saying they recorded more programs and 11 percent saying they watched more live TV because of the water cooler in the cloud.

The second statistic is especially what programmers look for, because when television becomes an "event" that people feel the need to catch live -- think "Mad Men," the series finale of "Breaking Bad" or "Game of Thrones" -- it means a reliable, quantifiable set of eyes on the screen during commercials or other promotional segments, without the viewers being able to take advantage of skipping commercials. Interestingly, speaking of such TV events, only three percent of Nielsen's respondents said they watched TV less because social media use often involves spoilers.

Tech Savvy Latinos Once Again on the Leading Edge

The starkest figures showing how viewers' social media use can give TV programs a noticeable leg up in viewership, awareness, and interaction relate to how social media impacts TV habits among Hispanics. As Nielsen and others have revealed time and again through several surveys and studies, Latinos in the U.S. -- especially young, bicultural Latinos -- are ahead of the digital curve, oversampling above the general population for things like social media use, ownership and use of smartphones and mobile devices, time spent streaming video, and other similar metrics.

So perhaps it's no surprise that, when broken down into ethnic and/or cultural demographics, Latinos led most social TV statistics. For example, while one in four Americans were more aware of TV programs thanks to social media, among Hispanics the figure was nearly one in three. Of those who enjoyed watching TV more because of corresponding social media use, 26 percent of Hispanics (more than 10 percent higher than the general average) reported experiencing the benefits of social media. And more Hispanics reported the benefits of social media for the all-important metric of live television viewing: 18 percent watched more live TV because of their social media habits.

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