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My fascination with facebook came quite late. All my friends kept telling me to use
it. I signed in early enough but unfortunately couldn't log in all the time. Our office network has a firewall which blocks the application. Thank God for one lucky break.... Our network bogged down and we had to be connected to the server of the building which houses our office..... actually ilegally connected as intimated by our all-around colleague who also performs network job for us. I would accidentally discover that facebook can be accessed. Since then, I am always logged on to facebook and would discover its various apps. I recently joined twitter. I have been a long-time multiply user for many reasons. Of course, I will not abandon my yahoo for sentimental reasons.....Unless you're septuagenarian who is tech-phobic, you know what I'm talking about and in all likelihood is hooked too. So what are the apps I go for in facebook?
I play scrabble on a regular basis. I have these running games with a couple of formidable opponents, one, a fellow Pinoy and another an Englishman who's not from New York..... I developed an addiction to this game probably a year ago. I was playing at games.com until the scrabble board was closed because another party bought the rights to the game. I was devastated to say the least, because I was a purple player already.... two notches lower than the two highest notches, a red player and an orange player. Naturally, when I rediscovered scrabble in facebook, I was ecstatic.... so much so that there were times I was trading sleep for playing. Over time, I tempered my addiction and content myself playing with these two guys. On occasion, I would play with new opponents. At the height of my addiction, the network would be sooooooo slow or would just quit on me and I'd lose a game because my opponent would force forfeit when you can't play within the time limit. I play two-minuter because I get bored when an opponent takes too long. I lost many games where I was ahead because the game was forced forfeited. Some sneaky players would do so just 1 sec after your time lapsed. As I tempered my addiction, I got to know good players whom I play with on a regular basis. Soon, we would just play open games without time limit. Occasionally, I would indulge in a game or two with new opponents.
But I can't believe there are creeps in what I consider a mentally-stimulating game.... I encountered bigots a number of times....... I would also get some indecent proposals from virtual lotharios. They would usually be friendly and ask if you could be friends. Once you agree, they will begin checking you out... your profile, photos, maybe your mind through your posts...... Then, offer you the opportunity of a lifetime..... There was this guy from Australia who ask if I was married. I told him that is my son I am smoldering on my profile picture. He repeated his question. I told him I am. Undeterred, , he ask if I would like to have an affair. I asked him why the hell is he looking for a tryst on a boring game like scrabble. He quited on me and I won the game...... I was way ahead anyway. Inspite of this and even if I am past my addiction, I still love this game.
As I begin getting acquainted with more apps, I would notice that these apps would eat so much of your time if you play them on a regular basis. I do...... along with my work in the office, in school, and at home. I manage but would hardly stand up from my seat the entire day that I would not notice the passage of time.
After scrabble, I discovered farmtown when I accepted a friend's invitation. Later on, I noticed there was farmville too. Before I knew it, I also set up a farm in farmville. Initially I thought, it was simply planting, harvesting, and selling and buying stuff for the farm. I would discover many things you can do in your farm. These games are constantly evolving too as the site developers add more features to the games to make it more interesting.
At some point, I was becoming bored with farmtown partly because the animals are useless. They do not help increase your money. Farmville became more interesting. That was until I accidentally discovered working for other farms can make you earn more and having other farmers work in your farm increase your crop value and save on plowing costs. These twists switch my interest back to farmtown that I now find earning more money is faster in farmtown than in farmville.
Recently, a cousin whom I have just "friended" (heard that unfriend is the latest "in" word) told me that one can adopt various animals, get stuffs, and earn bonus points by watching out friend's activities. Upon learning this, I immediately applied the new-found knowledge. Now, my interest has been shifted once again.
My farms for both farmtown and farmville have an uncanny similarity........ like where cottages are located or where the animals are placed; how the trees and crops are arranged. I want simlar trees bunched together like most farmers I know and visited. Both farms would give a glimpse of my character. Being Pinoy, it is important to have security, I had my entire farm fenced at the very start. It was still small so it was manageable. As it grew, I had to rearrange and buy more fence materials. After some time, I decided to stop fencing my farm and would just consider it when my farm is arranged to my liking.....
I am thinking about getting my mansion for the farm which my mind resist. I want the farm to maintain the charm of the countryside and that would mean doing away with the trappings of city life. A mansion or a villa would make my farms too cosmopolitan. Recently, I set up a river that flows around my farm. In real life. it will take enormous resources before one could set-up his own river or lake in a farm. In farmtown and farmville, just work for the money and one can have anything. Purchases add up to one's XP........ which means I might not be able to avoid buying the mansion after all.
As my fascination with the different apps grew, I was struck by a question raised by ED's friend as narratyed by ED during one of our family casual talks. ED's friend was asking why oldies play farmville or farmtown. Hmmmmmm, I don't know how accurate the question is ...... because it sounds as if the oldies, them and aww shucks alright, me, have a monopoly of the game.
I did a quick check of my neighbors and fellow farmers and indeed the rather amusing but astute observation of ED's friend looks like a valid contention. MD would somehow seem to confirm this observation as she blurted out that one of her BFF's mom also has a farm.... This would bolster the validity of ED's friend hypothesis. Now, I am raising the same question.... Why are the oldies farming?
Let's put the question in the proper perspective. Is the observation true across genders, geographical boundaries, classes, status, and other demographic delineation? How do we define oldies? baby boomers, seniors, gen x, y? Let's see.
Let me base the facts of this case on my own expeience as a 'farmer'. My neighbors for both farmville and farmtown are mostly females save for a couple of boys and one or two guys. I can hire people to plow for farmtown which means I have more than 11 neighbors, 16 actually. I have more neighbors in farmville because of my cousin, a farmville addict, who asked her brood of 6 to befriend me on facebook. Not all of them are into farmville, only the girls. Not all the girls are my neighbors, only the younger girls. Her teenage daughter plays farmville but is not my neighbor. Even my own girls are not into farmville and farmtown but they play another farm apps which they claim to have better graphics. MS used to have a farm until his FB was accidentally invalidated.
In the real word, most of my 'neighbors' are working or are in business that require them to use a computer. Hence, they can sneak into their 'farms" in the virtual world many times in a day...... like I do. I am also assuming that my 'neighbors' are PC or laptop owners and not merely relying on hardware in the office or school. Why? Because there are responsibilities to owning and tending a 'farm'. Crops can rot if left unattended after they become harvestable. One should be attuned to the timing of their crops. There were times I had to wake up in the middle of the night or early morning to check on my crops. I used to do this at the height of my addition to scrabble..... and here I am again.
A few of these neighbors have grown tired of the application and are now hardly touching their farm. A number of guys whom I invited to become my neighbors set up a farm just for the heck of it and never touched their farms or have abandoned their farms totally.
Most of my neighbors are fellow Filipinos but I have a couple of neighbors and some buddies from foreign lands. In the market place, I notice that there are generally more women than men at any given time. Most of my neighbors and even myself are also into other apps.
The above information will give me a profile of a typical farmer in farmville or farmtown. Farmers who stay for the long haul are mostly women; gainfully engaged in work or business; have family; are not too young nor too old; are multitaskers (based on the number of apps they are using plus the fact that we are able to juggle real and virtual work); and are bound to be compulsive users of the apps until satiation sets in. Having compiled this profile, I think I am inclined to agree with the hypothesis of ED's friend that farming is for oldies.
Now, lets try to explore that question a bit further and ask why we are playing farm..... This time I am basing the answer on my own personal opinion. I can only half-guess what's on the minds of the rest of the farmers.
Among the apps, I chose to play farming because it is like living a dream. The prospect of owning a farm in real life seems far-fetched right now even if I would like that so much. Imagine spending a weekend in a farm with its fresh air, trees and crops, animal sounds......... a commune with nature after a long and stressful week. Doesn't that sound cool? Just thinking about it make my mind drift from my reality.
However, it's not going to happen anytime soon. Aside from the lack of resource to buy a land to convert into my dream farm, time is also wanting. I don't even know how to stretch the weekend to do my chores at home. How can I even think that I would have the luxury of time to spend the weekend in a farm......
With that dream buried somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, farmville and farmtown would be the next best thing as these apps provide the platform to make my own dream farm. These apps provide instant gratification as one can see immediate results from the fruits of one's labor. If one 'works' hard, she can easily transform a simple farm into a dream farm in no time. Excitement builds up as one aspires for attaining his goals in transforming her farm every step of the way. There are also learning experience as one is taught planning; saving; investing (in equipment or building wih usage) vs consumption (of decorations and buildings for recreational purposes); comparing alternatives (hiring vs. own labor); and learning from mistakes or experience( I accidentally deleted a plant monster purchased by MS as a gift for me). Here, the impossible becomes possible. In real life, I could not buy a river even if I have the means but the platform allow me to do that...... and I love the waters...... The whole farm can be rearranged to one's specification as trees and buidings become movable properties which can be moved, sold, or used which is infeasible in real life. The thrill comes from seeing one's farm improve as one keeps on playing the apps.
I have also been receiving invitations from friends to try cafeworld, mafia wars, yoville but I have kept these invitations at bay. The apps are really time-eaters because they tend to become compulsion after sometime. For now, I am contented with my make-believe farms. Lest, I am willing to risk developing carpal tunnel syndrome..... even now, I can feel some sensation and tension on my wrist whenever I spend too much time on the pc or laptop......... it's worst when I am using laptop actually......
However, there are still dreams that are waiting to be lived out even in the virtual world. Like most people, I would love to have my own business, a restaurant perhaps, and be my own boss........... Hmmmmmmmmm.......Pretty soon I think that I am gonna have my own cafe-resto at cafeworld..... That will be the culmination of my virtual dream for now.......
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6 comments:
Wow, the length of this post attests how deeply fascinated you are with FB and Farmville! I have a FB account but i seldom post sparks of thoughts or links. The real consolation of facebooking has been reconnecting with friends and classmates never heard from for a long time because i never tried the social networking sites, not even friendster hehe. I got a few invites also to farm but i declined. For now, i'm just contented being more invisible than visible in my FB account by not posting regularly. Blogging seems to be my turf.
But the way you back up your farming activities philosophically - it's very interesting Amor...
likewise, i am now addicted to FB. i got hooked with FB because there was a need to investigate to all the social network sites as part of my final research on one of my class in Communication @ graduate school. FB was a different social network sites unlike other network sites...it is really fascinating that i can have now my own farm at the same time compete with new friends.. and connect with my loved ones in abroad. by the way i like to share my recommendation about FB and this is an excerpt to my final paper which my respondents uses FB most of the time
The Social network sites are avenues of easy access opportunities for interacting with new people. We found out that our respondents are somehow aware of the danger of meeting new friend online. Our respondents connects with old school friends, classmates and school friends, not seen friends from their friends network, relatives, family and long distance friends. Our respondents do not browse for information in Facebook but instead they would research in credible sites.
In accord with the message of our Holy Father Benedict XVI on the 43rd World Communications Day, young people are using the new media particularly the internet “as a means of communicating with friends, of meeting new friends, of forming communities and networks, of seeking information and news, and of sharing their ideas and opinions.” They put great importance in maintaining relationship evident in their use of internet to keep in touch with their friends and relatives. In fact, some of them feel out of touch when they log out of the social network site because communication with their friends are temporarily discontinued. They have a need to constantly communicate with their friends and relatives which they find the internet as an extension of their visible presence (virtually) that is an avenue to share themselves, their thoughts and even feelings. They also consider this as an alternative to the usual gimmicks of ‘barkadas’ of sharing each other’s presence through social interaction, hanging out with friends, being physically present to each other. This might influence their emotional development since emoticons are not mirrors of their true feelings which could somehow affect their stunted growth in this aspect, and eventually might leave them numb and apathetic of the feelings and concerns of others and even with their own selves which would influence the way they confront some important issues, desensitized as they mature in age.
continuation of my recommendation
They are not passive users of this new media but instead they exhibit control over the usage of the social network site and what it offers. Their prudence in accepting requests, gifts and invitations from strangers somehow reveals their perception of other persons as different from them and they even have a negative perception of strangers evident in their answer “they are scary and sometimes they say some vulgar words or things that are not pleasant.” They are likely to welcome and accept friends of their friends. This attitude has affected their negative view of the world of they consider unknown individuals who are most likely to be young persons who share almost the same struggles in growing up, feelings and desires. This would somehow convey the paradox of our modern youth, their need for individualism but they feel a need to belong. This could be a positive attitude in one angle of being loyal to their own friends; however “the capacity of the new media to foster connectedness, communication and understanding between individuals and communities”, as stated in Pope Benedict’s message in 43rd World Communications Day is devalued.
With their age level, formative stage they are into, their understanding of the world and the perception of individuals are limited and are only based on their experiences. An attitude of openness and respect to the world view of other persons will pave the way for understanding of persons with different ideas and experiences hinder biases and prejudices through dialogue and friendship with them regarding them as brothers and sisters in one Divine origin. We believe this attitude should be developed at their stage of critical thinking where they are now at and educators are influential in this aspect with the ideas and values they inculcate into these young persons. It is therefore a challenge to the educators to form students into Christian individuals who are unprejudiced, valuing the primacy of the dignity of each one as children of God. This new media, the internet, plays a great role for the realization of this “understanding between individual and communities” and reinforces our hope for peace, uniting dissenting races and origins, creating global peace in God. This new media therefore affirms this statement taken from the church document Ethics in the Internet “this will be an expression of that spirituality of communion which implies “the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God,” along with the ability “to ‘make room' for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other's burdens' (Gal. 6, 2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us. The Internet can make an enormously valuable contribution to human life. It can foster prosperity and peace, intellectual and aesthetic growth, mutual understanding among peoples and nations on a global scale.”
I am fascinated with technology in general and I am one of those who take advantage of its availability. Like you, it's my way to connect with friends who have long been cut out of my life. We used to send letters to each other but this became tedious after sometime that we stopped doing it. We lost touch after that. I am thankful for emails, these social networking sites, and the internet in general for enabling us to reconnect.
There are pros and cons, of course. For one, privacy is lost. Although, a number of us do not really mind posting their reality..... I still am wary about leaking too much info but would occasionally post pictures for the benefit of my friends who are FB users.
Hi grace,
Social networking sites have become relevant part of our life. Who wouldn't be hooked if you an maintain friendship, seek information, play games, listen to music, get news. There are so many possibilities.
There are also dangers lurking....... which is why we must still exercise caution in using platforms which unduly expose us to such risks.
see you guys soon!
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