Defending the Weakness. Is There Even a Point?

farmville

Can you call Facebook a vice? I think it should be considered as one. By definition, a vice is a moral or habitual shortcoming or defect. In that case, Facebook CAN be a vice. Everybody now is so addicted to it that most people do not go through a single day without checking their Facebook accounts at least once.

Plus, there's this thing with the Facebook games that get people so addicted and glued they are more than willing to spend a good quality of their time trimming up their farms, decorating their fake restaurants, and killing their friends' mafia. How weird is that that decades before, our parent would often reprimand us if we spend countless hours playing Super Mario or other Nintendo games. But now, even our grandparents have their own piece of land in Farmville or Farm Town.

Before, we use to play house or play cook with our friends using plastic toys and ceramic cups. Now, our restaurants, hotels, and night clubs can just be managed by a simple click of the mouse. We can leave them unmanaged for as long as 2 or 4 days when in fact, real life business like these can never be neglected by the owner for even just an hour.

I confess that I play those supper-addictive Facebook games too. It takes up at least two hours of my daily internet time. But I also am proud to say that I know how to set boundaries and limitations. I have said goodbye to my farms because they just happen to eat up so much time, especially when you're plowing or planting seeds.

I still hope that someday, I will get to maintain only one game in Facebook and no longer have to slave over those entertaining entrapments that they have deliberately set up for their users.

Saturday Games

I had a movie date with my mom earlier today. It should not come as a surprise if we watched the movie offered by Anne Curtis and Sam Milby. My mom loves Anne Curtis, with or without the wardrobe malfunction. I think she loves the fact that Anne Curtis is really trying to help a lot of people. Of course, the fact that Anne is probably one of the most beautiful faces in Philippines show business is more than enough for anyone to easily become her fan.

The movie was good. It had more then a couple of dramatic moments. The conflict was mostly internal. The characters needed improvement, but at least there were no cliche lines. The chemistry looked sincere and convincing. Of course, when you’re doing a movie with your ex-boyfriend, everything gets pretty much sincere. Anyway, I had fun hanging out with my mother today.

I am also playing another game in Facebook. My previous schoolmate sent me an invitation to this game call Treasure Isle. It’s created by Zynga. I like the concept of the game. Lately, the Facebook games have been dominated by games where you have to establish and build your own island resort, or hotel, or restaurant. Treasure Isle is not like any of that. It’s like Mafia Wars because it eats up energy for you to perform tasks. However, instead of being the most powerful mafia, your tasks are to dig up certain islands to find hidden treasures. It’s quite fun, actually.

If you have Facebook, you can add me up, so we can be friends. We can probably be neighbors too in whatever game you’re into… *wink*

Gaming

I am playing a new game in Facebook right now. It’s called Kingdoms of Camelot. I just started it a couple of hours ago, so you can expect my kingdom to not be that grand yet.

The game is played like Evony, Nap Wars, and Kingory. For those who does not know, I was once addicted to those three games which all originated in China (or so they say). I think this is the only game of its kind that was integrated to Facebook.

Everything else is similar to Evony. You need to build your city, grow your army, protect your land, and gain honor and might. I like this game better than the browser based ones because I feel more safe with this. Evony and the other games just had too much controversy tied to it. I feel like I am beginning to be such a paranoid when playing browser games.

If you have Facebook, why don’t you try it out. You might enjoy it too. Look me up, and add me. Let’s all build our kingdoms! 🙂

It’s So Nice To Be Happy

I have learned a very important thing over the holidays. I’ve been sick for almost a week now, but I am still as positive and energetic as I can be. I spent New Year’s Eve shivering with cold while the rest of my friends and family sang their hearts out to their favorite songs (we had videoke for the entire neighborhood). Videoke is our version of the popular Karaoke wherein you choose a song and you sing it to the best that you can.

Even as I felt my body start to give in to sickness, I still tried to celebrate the coming of 2010 with my friends and family. I just had to sleep earlier than them because any later, I would have been too sick to even write this blog today. The lesson that I learned? Well, it’s the fact that even when we have so much fun being with our friends, partying, celebrating, or doing stuff we like, nothing can still beat the happiness that our family can bring. It’s just so different when we’re with our family.

I am so fortunate that I got to celebrate Christmas and New Year with the most important people in my life. I know that not everybody celebrated the holidays with joy. But I can only hope that my fellowmen who feel so sad and desperate will one day find it in their hearts to be happy again. I hope that they will find peace and that they will never turn away from God.

The Facebook Mania (reposted and edited from my other blog)

There was a time when I really did not understand why people were so addicted to Facebook. I already had memberships for a lot of networking sites, and I definitely felt like Facebook was just like the others.

But one day, I let my curiosity get the better of me. I typed www.facebook.com onto my browser’s address bar. I went through the registration process, and before long, I found out that I was previously mistaken. Facebook wasn’t like any other networking site at all.

I became addicted to the RP games that my friends invited me to. Mob Wars anyone? How about Mafia Wars? Would you care if I added you to my posse in Fashion Wars? Can I add you to my crew in Pirates? How can I grow my family for Gangster Battle? I need more chips to play poker! I have to harvest my crops in Farmville now! These were usually the things that racked my brains out.

I had a lot of contacts in Facebook just because of these games. I had a lot of fun doing missions, adding friends up, collecting money, buying properties, and winning battles. I would get mad at people who attacked me, and I always made sure that I attacked them back. If they were too powerful for me to beat, I would add them to the hitlist and leave them to the other gamers to kill for a price.

I also got addicted to Farmville. I planted crops that could be harvested in one day, so I could grow my farm fast and earn coins right away. I spent valuable time in maing my farm beautiful and arranged. I bought limited and special items, based on the holiday that was being celebrated. I would look for posts from my friends, so I could get a bonus or adopt a lost animal.

But it wasn’t just the gaming part that entertained me. I also had a lot of fun with the applications that I could send to my friends. I am amazed by the fact that I could send pictures of Filipino or Korean food to my friends. I could also take a pick at which junk food I want my friends to receive. I could also send them plants, alcoholic drink, candies, and fishes too.

The fun doesn’t end there. I could also post pictures, tag people, make comments, and write notes. My friends and I could chat while we’re online. I could blast my current mood. I could update my status time and again. I could become a fan of celebrities, products, and other websites. There’s just no stopping it. Facebook is really addictive. I could spend half a day just browsing through it and going through all the things I could find in the site.

Now I know why millions of people are addicted to Facebook, and I’m sure that a million others will be addicted too once they sign up for it. Yes. I am a Facebook addict, and there’s no denying that.
 
I don’t mean for this to sound like an advertisement. I am merely expressing my opinion. I like Facebook, and I am hooked to it. But for all the others who have yet to experience it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Just make sure that your future Facebook addiction (I am confident you will have it too) will not go beyond the usual. Facebook-ing is good, but we should remember that there are still so many other things that we can learn over the internet. We should also spend a considerable amount of time exploring the web and learning a lot of new things. There are a lot of other websites out there which are not as popular but have so much to offer. Let’s try to make our “internet time” as productive as we can.