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.

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.