If this scenario sounds familiar, you may have more to worry about than Ms. Rogers' wrath. You may be on the path to a serious Internet addiction.

Teenagers spend more recreational time online than any other age group, hours posting comments and chatting with friends through programs such as Facebook and MySpace.

While these activities may seem like harmless entertainment, spending too much time online alienates youth from the real world and can lead to serious consequences.

According to Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, clinical assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of Stanford University's Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, Internet addicts' strong drive to compulsively use the Internet to check e-mail, make blog entries or visit Web sites is not unlike what sufferers of substance abuse or impulse-control disorders experience: a repetitive, intrusive and irresistible urge to perform an act that may be pleasurable in the moment but that can lead to significant problems on both personal and professional levels.

A small but growing number of users are even starting to visit their doctors for help with unhealthy attachments to the Internet, according to Aboujaoude.

Although the Internet provides a way of keeping in contact with friends, addicts spend most of their time relying on virtual connections and isolating themselves from friends and family, which can disrupt or destroy real-life relationships.

In addition, they may attempt to conceal the amount of time they spend online, resulting in dishonesty and a lack of trust in formerly stable relationships, according to the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, which published research in 2005 on Internet addiction. As people become more and more dependent on the Internet as a way of relating to others, their real-life relationships may fall apart.

And online communication is never the real thing; individuals can easily falsify identities to manipulate cyber "friends" or to feel better about themselves. Users also may use the Internet to avoid facing the truth about their own problems.

In a nationwide household survey published on Oct. 17, Stanford University researchers found that 68.9 percent of the 2,513 adults they interviewed were regular Internet users and that 8.2 percent used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve a bad mood — much like addicts who abuse alcohol or other substances to ease their pain.

So next time one of your parents calls you away from the computer, take the first step in preventing an Internet addiction — just get up and go.

Choosing more personable forms of communication instead of the Internet shows that you truly care about someone, and are not just looking for another "friend" to add to your online collection.