An Addiction of Agrarian Origin

When your Facebook friends statuses constantly update with findings of lost chocolate cows or celebrating the harvest of their sweet potato plant you coldly disregard it. When its 8:30 am, you're late to class and someone in your carpool gasps in remembrance  "MY FARM", you shake your head in disapproval. When there's a line of homework-bearing students behind an entire row of computers, all  harvesting crops, your stomach turns in disgust, but when your inbox explodes with Farmville invites and you find yourself considering, you realize something is wrong. Very wrong.

A growing population of Facebookers have fallen victim to an all-encompassing game addiction not seen since the likes of World of Warcraft and The Sims. A real time game with a concept of such jaw dropping simplicity it hurts the brain when trying to comprehend its appeal.

Farmville: farming, planting seeds just to wait, in real time, for them to grow. I couldn't imagine a more exciting way to spend my time. Yet "farmers" waste away in front of their farms. ?    

Like Girl Scouts selling cookies door-to-door, players invite farmless friends to join the loyal following. This is where Facebookers become divided. The few remaining resisters unite to attempt to hold their ground against the ever-growing wave of "Farmvillers" crashing forcefully upon them.

I remain on the miniscule opposing side, refusing to have endless hours of free time stripped from me. ?    

I have seen firsthand the evils of this subtle life destroyer, burdening the minds players with constant worry...and for what? The salvation of intangible crops and profits one can only use to purchase more useless seeds. As 18 year old Michelle Itscovitch put it "When your crops wilt, your heart wilts with them." A tragically pathetic statement followed by the admittance of sleepless nights at the hand of Farmville. When you're pulling all-nighters but getting no work done, sanity is to be questioned and one should seek help. ?  

Some take the obsession even further; random and idle Farmville conversation over Facebook has led to people expressing that they have renounced their beliefs for Farmville their new "religion." Shouldn't this be where we draw the line? All joking aside, to dub a Facebook game your religion is morally unacceptable. ? 

So is this our repressed attempts at escapism? Is rural farming what we secretly, internally want? To think, our preconceived notions and reasons for play video games have now been altered. Instead of  fantasies of magic or action through gruesome slaughter, all we apparently really just want is to farm.

Do we feel as if we are doing more for our environment? Do we feel like we are being green in someway by mindlessly waiting by the computer to harvest your crops? I don't, so I continue refuse the temptation of Farmville. ?   

So as more and more Facebookers put off work and waste away hours in front of their farms, I, along with a shrinking number of resisters continue refusing to give up our free time and free will to this dictator of a game.

I don't wish to be part of the growing population that selfishly takes up computers in library to tend to their useless farms while students who actually have homework to do wait helplessly, desperately hoping someone will be nice enough to quit. I don't want to be type who's consumed soul leads to the quality of my work suffering. So I continue to say screw Farmville.