We all know someone who has joked that they would feel lost if they couldn’t get online to check the latest Facebook (News - Alert) statuses or see who was trending on Twitter. A new study out of Great Britain seems to indicate that those feelings might not be a joke after all as findings reveal that people are more concerned about losing their Internet connection than they are about having their water or heat shut off.

The study highlights that more than 40 percent of people who were surveyed said they believed they would be more “stressed out” if they lost their Internet connection than if they lost heat or water, or even if their televisions stopped working. A tiny sliver of the people who participated in the study (four percent) said that they didn’t feel the need to use the Internet at all.

The report, which takes U.K. citizens into account only, shows that Brits have become more reliant on the Internet than at any other time in the country’s history. Last year, when the same study was done, 17 percent of respondents said they could not live without the Internet. This year that number was up to almost a third of people interviewed (27 percent). Additionally, 25 percent of people said they could go as long as 24 hours without an Internet connection.

The poll encompassed 1,000 people who lived and worked in London and of that group, 38 percent said that they’d rather lose basic essentials like water and heat before they lost their connectivity. Further, 32 percent said they would be most worried about losing water and just 18 percent said losing heat would be the biggest concern.

The study seemed to show just how much people have come to rely on the Internet for much more than just checking in on their favorite social networks. People get quite a bit of their basic information off of the Web on a daily basis. And with so many people going online, it really is a community all its own that will continue to grow by the minute.