Is your internet service purely for your entertainment, or just because you're addicted?
Both
Or do you actually use it for work?
Yes, that too, but I am still addicted to news, I am always looking up new things.
How important is the internet in your life?
More than most. I don't communicate with my ex unless I have to, and if the phone does not work for whatever reason (he has a cell) I can always get ahold of him via email/IM/IRC as a backup. Also, since I work from home, that is important as well. And do I even need to mention online banking?
Is a near tragedy when you experience an outage?
The only time my computer goes down is for a reboot (maybe once a month), or the power goes out. In Dec 04 we had a huge power outage for a week, also no heat.
I was feening for my machine to be back up and running. Good thing husband had a Samsung that the net stayed connected to, otherwise we would have been screwed for weather updates and the such.