Recently in The internet Category

It pains me to say it, but here goes...

My name's Jack, and I'm a Farmville addict

Those who read my previous blog post on this latest internet craze will remember I wasn't the bigegst fan of Facebook and its latest method of keeping people locked away in the house on their computers.

But, having tried it out (all for work purposes you understand!) I have become a bona fide Farmville user.

It's addictive.

I've just sown some more crops, bought a few cows and planted some hedges. Now all i need to do is wait an agonizing three days for it to grow (this is the virtual world after all, time is a foreign concept on this farm) and then I can get back onto it.

I'm now in stiff competition with friends and colleagues to get the best farm, earn the most money and gain the most points.

It's a fierce competition and I have to admit I am dedicating far too much time to it at the moment.

And I'm not the only one.

Last time we reported on it, there were 39,000,000 users - a record for a social network game.

Now there's a whopping 45,000,000 after the huge amount of press coverage the game has had in previous weeks - FG included, so sincere apologies from us to those who now find themselves burdened with this addiction.

There must surely be a support group i can join, a way to ween myself off this habit. I even found myself 'harvesting' at 11pm last week in an attempt to gain a march on my virtual competitiors.

I know its not healthy (I'm told you go blind if you do it too much... or something like that) but I just can't help it.

THERE was a time when social networking was nothing more than a high-tech way to spy on your friends, see what they're up to and share embarrassing photos.

It was a voyeur's dream - though personally I'm still baffled as to why anyone cares that so-and-so 'just woke up' or what-his-name 'doesn't want to go to work today'.

More often than not, when trawling through the inane ramblings of your 'friends' (come on, admit it you are not actually friends with 1,000 people are you?) you wonder if the world really has gone mad and we are in fact living in a virtual world where Facebook is now the basis of most people's social lives.

And now, it seems Facebook has helped to launch a new craze - virtual farming.

Figures out this week showed the popular application Farmville is now the biggest social game on the web with a breathtaking 38 million users.

Essentially, the game allows users to build a virtual world, where they tend to their crops and livestock, selling produce at the market and re-investing the earnings in the farm.

An interesting idea, and one that really seems to have caught the imagination.

In one way it's every farmer's dream - prices are set by the game with no interference from retail bully-boys, crops are never affected by the weather, and there's no red tape to get around before you get going.

Not the most realistic farming experience then, but for social network aficionados it has become a serious addiction, tending to the farm in between reading that so-and-so 'can't wait to go on holiday' and what's-his-name 'witnessed 09/09/09 - 09:09:09am today' (I won't name the culprit but honestly, that is real!).

It's still hard to shake the sense of irony though that the most popular Facebook application is one based on an outdoor industry, where computers and status updates are nowhere to be found.

But wait, there's more...

You will soon be able to visit farmers markets online!

After trialling it on Second Life (if you thought Facebook geeks were sad, you aint seen nothing yet!), former cattle farmer Marcus Carter, 45, from Kilburn in north west London has set up an online farmers market.

You can tour the virtual market, watch videos of producers talking about their products and then buy them for home delivery.

Farmers are always looking for ways to connect with the consumer and if the modern day shopper won't come to the market (because of course, you can't leave the house -  there is important Facebook business to attend to!) then why not take the market to them?

It's a great idea, and if it takes off it could see more farmers taking the plunge into the vurtual world to connect with their customers.