Depends...
Currently going through a non life-threatening medical situation that for last week and this coming week requires lying low... it's more like continuous access, as recent posting here and on other venues steps up.
Less a matter of need, than default, when few options are available.
Access changes with need, through the years. During the social period in Florida, there were dozens of emails throughout every day, and the rest of the time was away from the computer.
Age and social life changes contacts and outside the home activities. I gradually weaned myself from the personal email contacts (before facebook) as most of this mail was involved in giving help to others.
Now, access depends on what I'm doing and where I am. If I'm at our camp... no internet access anyway, I never miss it. At home, with a growing sedentary lifestyle, It's pretty easy to get involved in my hundreds of different interests by searching the internet, and corresponding on different venues.
The overall subject of internet addiction is fascinating. A walk trough the shopping mall has become weird... as people subconsciously weave and dodge each other as they walk... with cellphone to the ear, or tablet held out front.
A current TV clip shows a gamers' convention with thousands of attendees of all ages... staring zombie-like into their on-line gaming websites... interacting with people they don't know, and will never meet. The virtual world of electronics...
Help... I see it in my own family, and worse still, in their children.
Yeah... the subject is valid!... Years from now, scientists will study the phenomenon and wonder how society survived.
