My family has recently switched from MySpace to Facebook for many of our communications. I have been pleasantly surprised to find more of my friends inhabiting the Facebook universe too. Much better than MySpace, where my daughter had to find me friends so I wouldn't be pathetic. We can post pictures and videos, SuperPoke each other and generally have a good time. All seemed good until. . . .
It all started innocently enough when my daugher-in-law sent me the Facebook application Pet Pupz. She encouraged me to adopt a cyber-puppy to help her gain points and play with her cyber-puppy. It seemed a simple enough request until I discovered that Patches the Cavalier King Charles puppy with adorable brown eyes has to be fed, played with the trained. Every day. To do so one must have puppy points, acquired each day at sign in. It didn't take long to figure out that the daily puppy points were not going to be enough to pay for training. In search of more points, I discovered promiscuous puppy petting on the application bulletin board. AHA
People from all over the world post their puppy link on the bulletin board. Each pet patted gained me 4 puppy points. Soon I found myself "petting" hundreds of pictures of puppies while watching TV. I was making good progress on training with my additional points and beating said d-i-l in the daily puppy contests, when I mistakenly shared the secret of unlimited puppy points with my son. The Rat! Now we are neck and neck in the puppy contests.
Thankfully, the puppy training came to an end and I had more than enough points left to feed my puppy every day without working at it. But wait! One of d-i-l's friends wasn't feeding or playing with his puppy. It was starving and unhappy!!! Being a recovering codependent, I had to take care of it. Now I'm feeding two puppies a day and giving away excess points to other starving puppies. Husband says, "THEY AREN'T REAL". Oh.
Obsession slightly under control I heaved a sigh of relief. Until the invitation arrived for the new application, Cute Catz. I didn't hesitate for a second before adopting Sven the Norwegian Forest Cat, who is now a week old. He is partially trained, but I only pet other kittens during basketball games. By the time the playoffs are over and my Suns are victorious, he should be grown. Now my daughter has joined Facebook and has also been sucked in to the Cute Catz obsession. We may need a twelve step program if I'm going to get more knitting done (like that really cute scarf I saw in the cat knitting book)
I thought I was finding a balance until yesterday when the invitation arrived for the Hatchery. Damn the d-i-l for tempting me again. I couldn't leave that poor little egg unclaimed and they hatch in to such cute cartoon babies. Sigh. ... My egg is calling.
2 comments:
I'm a recovering Facebook addict, myself. It's difficult to turn your back on a request from a friend, isn't it? Even when it involved adopting a virtual pet so they can get more points. It's nice to enjoy the frivolous side of the Internet sometimes, it reminds us why technology is fun!
"THEY AREN'T REAL"--I'm cracking up!!! I actually am on facebook, but, alas, no time. It's sort of where I drew the line--but not without SERIOUS regret.
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