My youngest child is currently not allowed on Facebook for getting his mate banned from Club Penguin. This is a huge relief to me because he embarked on his mission to acquire friends with such gusto that I was a little concerned and began to regret my decision to let him join all his mates online. He became friends with my friends (of which I have about 6). He became friends with his brother and sister’s friends (of which they have about 856 each). He became friends with people he barely knows. This is probably the reason why there is an age limit and why I have to hope that I will find another excuse quite quickly to ban him again.
However, my biggest concern is with the withdrawal symptoms he is exhibiting as a result of not being able to tend to his farm on FarmVille. “I reckon I’m going to have to spend like £50m now to get everything growing again. My strawberries are dead and there’s no one feeding my cattle – please mum, I have to go back on. I’ll be way behind everybody else now”.
I have recently read that FarmVille, the online computer game built into the social networking site has 69m players and is rising fast. Uniting the world of social networking and gaming is genius for addiction obviously. 69 million!! That’s more than the entire population of the UK.
Last month in the US a scam behind the special offers on adverts on the FarmVille site was revealed. Zynga is an advertising company that has “an extremely tight relationship with Facebook through committing to large ad buys” and according to Nick O’Neill from the social media site All Facebook, Znyga is making £304,000 ($500K) a day from its Facebook games. Facebook have so far refused to release details of its advertising revenue insisting that it has no obligation to do so.
Should we be worried about this? Are our children going to become addicted? Or indeed are we going to become addicted, given that the majority of players are women over 35. It all seems initially very innocent – ploughing fields and buying sheep, but you can spend real money improving it and getting absorbed into competitive farming and then all it is is a proper common or garden gambling addiction.
Jo Blogz
December 6, 2009Oh dear. I’m addicted to Farmville… it sucks you right in and often have to tend to my farm. Maybe I should try and kick the habit but I quite like it. xx
Family Affairs
December 6, 2009AHA look at that! Three confessions within the first 10 minutes of my post going out!! I wonder who else is prepared to confess all……Lx
Chic Mama
December 6, 2009I must admit I’ve only recently allowed my 12 year old to open a Facebook account. It is all a bit worrying….have to admit to going on Farmville myself the other day as I keep seeing all my friends ( all over 35) tending their crops etc. I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Far too complicated for me. ;0)
Very Bored Housewife
December 6, 2009Interesting post. God I am a stereotypical Farmville addict, how about that! I’ve never spent a cent nor has anyone I know, but I guess somebody somewhere must be. As games go it’s pretty innocent and I would happily let my children play it, if nothing else it might get kids to eat more greens!
Family Affairs
December 6, 2009My god these games are so sad. Go out and tend a real garden for crying out loud. Sorry – I just can’t understand the appeal. I like facebook but for the basics like sharing photos and wishing happy birthdays. My nephew who has just 13 added me as a “friend” and since then I have been more careful about how I update, etc. Already he has more than 200 “friends.” So far my niece has not been allowed to join, but once she does I can see her becoming very attached to these kinds of games.
Then again maybe I should just shut up, since I’m a complete blog addict. One way or another I think many of us are hooked on the internet and can’t imagine life without it anymore.
PUREST GREEN
Family Affairs
December 6, 2009PS – Sorry just posted a comment from Purest Green and for some reason it’s come up under my name. Just in case you’re a bit confused x
Shiny
December 7, 2009Oh dear (blush), I, too, am completely addicted to it. I’d like to say it’s because I’m a 10-year old boy and that’s what they do but I’d (obviously) be blatantly lying. I have, on occassion, had the sense of humour of one, though… if that counts? x
Muddling Along Mummy
December 7, 2009Given how addicted I’ve discovered I am to Twitter I reckon that Facebook could be equally so (but fortunately my friends were on that ages ago and have moved on …) – scary isn’t it
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