‘My name is Lisa, and I’m addicted to Farmville’

Warning: the urge to run back to the residence halls after class, have a roommate log into Facebook for you, or carry a laptop around campus in order to check on your crops, may signal an addiction.

Applications such as Farmville, Vampire Wars, and Bite Me have become a topic of conversation among Facebook users. The use of these applications is becoming nearly as large a phenomenon as Facebook itself, and people should be sincerely warned of the effects of their usage.

“Yeah, I would say that I am definitely addicted to Farmville,” Jimmy Gardner, a freshman undeclared major said.

People have suggested that loss of sleep, studying time and their entire schedules have begun to be altered by these applications. Lisa Camp, freshman pre-psychology major, has found that she does not start her homework until nearly 9 p.m. due to use of her Facebook application of choice, Farmville.

Farmville is an application allowing a person to own their own farm, maintain livestock such as cows, chickens, pigs and horses, as well as manage crops varying from cotton to vegetables.

“I get on Farmville about once or twice a day, and when I plant my crops, I make sure that I will be near the computer when they’re ready for harvest,” Camp said when asked about her Farmville usage.

She has even gone to the extent of asking her roommate to check on her crops while she is in class, because she knows that her crops will wither if she waits until she gets back to her dorm.

Like Camp, Gardner plays Farmville and has also asked his roommate to check on his crops while he is out. He logs onto Facebook multiple times a day to use the application, spending nearly 30 minutes each time, or “too much time,” as Gardner said.

He claims that it doesn’t detract from his school work, but also says that he may not start a paper until 3 a.m. due to the fact he is playing the game. Gardner admits his addiction to Farmville and jokes about the fact that it is a serious problem.

“I have even set alarms on my phone to check my crops,” Gardner said, laughing at himself.

Another application that is prone to alter your schedule is Vampire Wars. Vampire Wars is an application that people can do missions on, where players can fight each other and gain rankings. It is a time-based game in which a player must maintain their vitals, such as energy, to succeed in tasks.

Kara Dailey, a sophomore sociology major, is a frequent user of this application claiming she spends as much as an hour to an hour-and-a-half using it. Bite Me is another vampire based game that Dailey is addicted to. She admits that most of the reason she plays these games is due to boredom, which is surely the premise for all addicts.

“My friends and I will all get on Facebook when we’re together, sitting in a room with a laptop in everyone’s laps, and I have to get on Vampire Wars,” said Dailey.

Camp admits that she has a problem.

“Hello. My name is Lisa, and I’m addicted to Farmville,” said Camp.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 11 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry