Would you rather give up your nightly Gin and Tonic or Twitter (News - Alert) for a week? What about your morning cup of Joe? Still not sure… what about sex and sleep?

Well, this might come as a surprise to you – especially since you might have had a few friends who seamlessly kissed Twitter goodbye during Lent last month – but Twitter might be harder to resist than sex, sleep, alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes. Do you feel less bad about yourself now that you answered Gin and Tonic to the above question?

A recent survey published by OnlineSchools.com illuminated the fact that Twitter use appears to release those same addictive tendencies that nicotine, cocktails and caffeine exude, as Twitter has over 100 million active users, more than 50 percent of these users login daily and nearly 250 million tweets are tweeted each day. So is it really possible to be addicted to a social networking site? Survey says… YES.

Case and point: in a 2010 study, college coeds were tasked with going 24 hours without using social media. The most common expression used to describe that harrowing time was “addiction” (23 percent); “physical or mental distress” (21 percent); “failure” (12 percent); “confusion” (8 percent); and “isolation” (8 percent). And if you think only the average person struggles with this addiction think again because Ashton Kutcher could only stay away for a month after criticizing Penn State for firing Joe Paterno; Alec Baldwin was tweet-free one day after quitting because of his airplane kickoff snafu; and Chris Brown freed himself of Twitter for just three months, after he quit the site because of all the talk about him and ex-girlfriend Rihanna.

As someone who is fairly new to Twitter myself – about three months in – I have to say that I do not feel prepared to give up any caffeinated beverage and certainly not my sleep for that matter for the social networking site. Call me crazy but if the Fail Whale appeared tomorrow on Twitter and never swam away I wouldn’t so much as utter a sigh.

That’s simply because I don’t really get Twitter.

Don’t get me wrong; I understand the point of Twitter for free business advertising and shameless self promoting for business pursuits (guilty), but I do not feel the need to incessantly stalk Kim Kardashian to see if she went to the gym today or see what my favorite stores are up to (OK partially guilty).

I will wholeheartedly confess, however, that I use Twitter as a wonderful news source, as it appears everyone from the New York Times to the Huffington Post (News - Alert) to People Magazine chooses to break leading stories on Twitter. But, I cannot plead guilty to needing to know exactly what my friends are up to on Saturday or what they thought about last night’s Rangers’ game. After all, isn’t that what real life conversations are for?

The fact that college students view Twitter as an addiction – and as one that is as hard to beat as alcoholism and smoking – is nothing less than troubling. What does that say about the youth that social networking has become such an “impossible to break” habit. At what point did following others and posting self serving statements become mundane?

So as you look to limit your Twitter and Facebook (News - Alert) use in the coming months – because let’s face it, it is probably getting in the way of exercise, family visits and in-person communication – remember that an addiction is in its nature used to describe dependencies that can cause real mental and physical suffering if not stopped. Let’s remember that Twitter is really no more than a forum for the Kim Kardashian’s of the world to enjoy a little bit more of their 15 seconds of fame.