Americans of all ages can't go very long without the Internet—in fact, they prefer the Internet over everything else, including their friends and one of nature's most primal instincts. The world's fourth-largest advertising agency, JWT, made the findings in a survey of 1,011 American adults, and discovered that the Internet has become such an integral part of our lives that some of us are willing to make major sacrifices for it.

Survey respondents were asked how long they could go without an Internet connection and still feel "OK." 15 percent of the group admitted to being weak-willed and said that they would only be able to last a day or less without feeling isolated and disconnected from the world. Another 21 percent didn't do much better, saying they could only go a couple of days, with 19 percent saying they could go "a few days." Only about 18 percent of the group said that they could go a week or more without being connected, according to the results seen by Ars Technica. Notably, respondents over the age of 55 were just as likely to say that they live part of their lives online as those under 35 (43 and 44 percent, respectively), and roughly half of both age groups said that they feel like "something is missing" if they cannot access the Internet.

But that's not the juicy part. The old adage that sex is on people's minds x times per second may still be true, but that apparently didn't outweigh the desire for the Internet in 20 percent of the survey's respondents. Members of this group said that they knowingly spent less time having sex as a result of Internet use, and another 28 percent of the group acknowledged that they spent less time with their friends because of the amount of time spent online or playing with gadgets. "Sorry, I can't go out tonight. I've got a killer new iPod to check out." (Wait, I think I might have actually said that to someone once...)

That said, young people were much more likely to integrate Internet access into their everyday lives so that they could actually leave the house and face the daystar every so often—that is, they were much more mobile with the help of laptops and other connected gadgets. "Older Americans are happy to sit in the same place to go online, while younger people expect to be able to connect anywhere at any time, without being tethered to a particular location or time frame," said JWT executive VP Marian Salzman in a statement sent to Ars. "Mobility represents the next big shift. Consumers who have integrated digital technologies into their life now want to move into connectivity whenever they feel like it."

With both wired and wireless broadband becoming more ubiquitous throughout the US, it truly is hard for some of us to imagine our lives without constant connectivity. With Americans admitting to being addicted to e-mail and data that BlackBerry users are increasingly chained to work, it's clear that finding a balance between being connected and still having a life has become a new challenge for many of us.