Online Games Have Taken Over My Life!

Like many, I am unemployed. I have been unemployed for about 18 months now and like most I have been turning to online distractions to counter my time until I find a job I can see myself in twenty or so years on down the road because if there's anything I have learned during my time of unemployment and some say laziness it is that I need to stay busy with something I enjoy doing and if not passionate about then I need to really really enjoy it. Now, where was I? Oh yes, online distractions. Now, there are many forms of distractions online or in the real world of outside your house. This article will focus on distractions online, specifically games.

Now, I was a huge fan of MySpace when it first came out in 2003 by Thomas Anderson and Chris Dewolfe but there is only so much you can do on MySpace and after a while of changing your profile graphics and music it gets really boring. And besides, the majority of the friend requests I got on there were only for booty calls. Who wants to have endless sex with strangers anyway? When Facebook came out a year later I was highly skeptical about yet another gathering site to meet people even though it was labeled as an online site to reconnect with your school chums. But then a funny thing happened, I got tired of fielding booty call requests left and right and grew bored (because yes I am socially inept) so I thought I would give this new website a try.

I was very happy and surprised to reconnect with high school friends I grew up with and even friends I haven't seen since grade school but then I quickly realized another option of Facebook I became addicted to. Games. The first one was café world in which you build your own café business. You cook and serve meals. Who has time in the real world anyway to cook elaborate meals when on Facebook you can create a turkey dinner in a few clicks of the mouse? And then came Farmville and being the old fashioned 1800's girl I am I quickly became addicted to plowing your fields, planting seeds, and eventually harvesting your crop for Farmville money. And all without getting dirty and the twelve hour days slaving in the sun. Several games came after, some of which include poker, sorority life, baking life, and I swear the last game I will play on facebook is cityville (unless they come up with a really good one).

Basically all my free time is taken up by these games, and eventually my family and some friend's joke about how often I play but you know behind every joke is a kernel of truth. I myself am getting kind of sick of playing these games day in and day out but what else can a depressed, out of work thirty something do? Go out and make friends? With what money. Go out and look for a job? Why can't I just find something on craigslist in the comfort and safety of the indoors. Go out and be social? How? How, how!! When it scares the hell out of me to even walk up to a stranger and ask the time of day?

Yes, I can pretend and be confident with the best of them but when I'm not concentrating and my inner insecurities come out and I stumble and let even a sliver of the inner me out, people are astonished and concerned. I quickly revert back to the outward, confident, bright and communicative self and let my inner me slip back into that place inside my body and guard it against ever coming out again. Sorry, we got away from the topic of online games.

Why are online games so addictive? From childhood I have always loved to play with board games and even when my siblings outgrew them, I never ever did. I would always find someone to play with me or barring that I would just play by myself which is very lonely and really not good to do at all.

Online games are cool because there isn't someone telling us we're playing the games wrong and they don't want to play with someone that doesn't even know the rules or someone telling us we're not fast enough with our turn because guess what? When playing online, your never taking turns (except with poker, and then it is always timed). Or maybe someone is telling you that you're not handling the money right, but online gaming, we never have to handle money and count it, the computer does it for you. Yes, online games on facebook are too much fun because it's an imaginary world from the one you're living in right now.

But how can we stop ourselves from planting yet another crop of blueberries or adding on yet another house to your city so your population can grow? It's all about willpower and how tiresome you think these games really are. It's all about who you know, you've got to have family who can take you out someplace fun, you have to have at least one friend who is a social cheerleader or at least better at socializing than you are. Have them get you out into the fresh air and make time to reconnect with a happier you; you will definitely feel better for it. And before you know it, Facebook will be a thing of the past.