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Sex Less Important Than the Web for Many Americans

by Terrence O'Brien on September 20, 2007 at 12:20 PM

friends and sex taking a back seat to the web for many americans

The Internet has become so ingrained in our lives that a full fifth of Americans admit to having less sex so they can spend more time online. Those 20 percent happen to be the most extreme cases, but have we become a nation of connectivity addicts?

A survey conducted by advertising agency JWT aimed to find out exactly how reliant Americans are on their Internet connections and mobile phones. The study found that we cannot pull ourselves away from the safety of a broadband connection for too long. Some highlights include:

  • 15 percent of Americans say they can survive just a day or less without the Internet.
  • 21 percent say they last a "couple of days" until digital starvation.
  • 19 percent go a "few" days without it.
  • One fifth say they can stay offline for a whole week -- the same number who are willing to give up sex for MySpace and blogs.
According to Ann Mack, Director of Trend Spotting (her title, not ours) at JWT, Americans feel anxious and disconnected when away from their Internet connections. Forty-eight percent percent say they feel something important is missing when they are offline and 28 percent say they spend less time socializing face-to-face because of the amount of time spent online.

We know that Internet addiction is becoming a problem -- we just didn't know it was this wide spread. Obviously we love the Internet as much as everyone else (how else would you read us with out it?), but trust us, sex and face-to-face interaction with other people is much more fun than making sure you reply to that comment on your blog.

From iTnews

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Tags: addiction, breaking+news, health, internet, online, sex, socialization, top, web

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