You've seen them in your Facebook feeds and cursed under your breath. Ridiculously boring, inane details about somebody's pretend life: "Josie Simmon's sheep has gout and is looking for a vet in Farmville!" The statistics are out of this world. There are more than 80 million virtual farmers on Facebook. Imagine if we could harness the real life energy of these workers. It would be amazing. We could get actual work done!
Forgive my disdain, but Farmville strikes me as the nerdiest trend I have ever seen. I have no right to talk, really. After all, I watched every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, read a book about chessmaster Bobby Fischer, and my favorite Nintendo game was an obscure Japanese strategy game called Nobunagu's Ambition. I am a nerd. And yet, Farmville is a land I cannot abide.
Perhaps I just don't understand it. Actual farming, though an essential and admirable profession, already strikes me as mind-numbingly dull. The thought, then, of pretend farming is unacceptable. And yet, eighty million people would plant me in the ground for saying so.
If the trends continue, there will be Farmville Conventions at the Marriott, where visitors dress as the Ingalls family and the Jolly Green Giant gets the keynote. They could gather in the ballroom, sign on to Facebook, and "Poke" one another for hours. Because a virtual poke is every bit as annoying as a physical one.
You have to admit, it's a plausible scenario, IF the trend continues. But it won't. Sooner or later, bosses all over the country will get on Facebook, and they'll see that their employees are using their wicked fast T3 internet to plow imaginary beet fields on company time. Twenty million virtual farmers will be fired, and unable to pay their broadband bills at home. Then, they'll have to sell the farm.
Mark my words: fads will fade as quickly as they came. Farmville, then, will soon disappear like sweet corn at pretend harvest time. You have my virtual guarantee.
Source: eZine
