In this article, I would like to explore the titanic upsurge in time folks spend playing the free of charge games on Facebook, Bebo and Myspace. On arrival into Facebook for instance, latest users take pleasure in hooking up with old contacts and making new ones. Sharing an online diary with your social group seems alien at first but before long it becomes second nature and before you know it you're having day by day conversations with those you haven't shared two words with in a year.

This is where a entity called viral marketing takes over. Sooner or later, you'll notice an note on a contacts newsfeed with reference to an achievement they have made in one of the games or applications. This ranges from winning a pillow fight to an upgrade in Cafe World or harvesting a new-found crop in Farmville. You might resist the temptation to go off and find out what's going on in there, but the odds are you'll be inquisitive following seeing endless notifications from Happy Aquarium or Mafia Wars and click through to check what all the fuss is about. And that's when they reel you in. The top games on Facebook are very ingeniously designed to keep you playing, and keep you coming back to either beat your contacts great scores on the likes of Farkle and Missile Tower Defence, or to develop your cafe on Cafe World and Restaurant City, or spread out your terrain in Farmville. This is where the brand new generation of games come into their own. The need to keep monitoring progress over hours, days and weeks means you'll be back on at regular intervals, gaining the website owners valuable advertising revenues.

Now maybe my pessimism is begining to show, but when I grasp what's happening to my small clique of friends over a relatively brief period of time, I've got to wonder where does it come to an end. People I've known for years are glued to their computers and iphones through the day and night making certain their Cafe World game is in wonderful order, while their own day to day life is disappearing down the sink. The volume of man hours being frittered away (pardon the cooking pun) is mind boggling and surely it won't be long before offices around the globe have to enforce a prohibition on web surfing at work either on the work systems or web browsing mobiles. The argument I'm trying to present here is that if these individuals put half the energy and dedication they invest in these games, into their family, company and job lives then surely they'd be millionaires.

And there it is. The irrefutable truth that life has become so mind numbing, so overwhelmingly colorless, wearying and completely uneventful that these online platforms are satisfying a need in an emotional vacuum. So what's the answer? Do we need an answer? Well, I for one have kids and the outlook can still be happy for them if they can grasp an alternative with superior rewards than these games can offer. So lets propose that our kids are showing some notable aptitude by mastering these games and congratulate them for doing so well at something. But they can't earn a living from it. The dark fringe of this industry is the betting world and we don't fancy them going away down that path surely? So lets advise putting a portion of this time into something productive. Something which contributes to the household earnings maybe. We as parents can still brandish some degree of authority over our kids, so lets make an effort to shine a light down a new-found path.

Life is the game. You just get one life in this game and there's no going back to try again if you mess it up. What I'm suggesting is harnessing a little of this talent and putting it to good use. And not intended for charitable purposes either. I'm not some evangelist whose preaching some road to salvation here, but if you're earning fair money, more choices become accessible. Put it this way, if you announce to your folks a month long break to Disney World, do you think they'll look up from their computers?

Time to unbolt a gate at this juncture. You decide if you would like to move through it or not. Beginning an online company has to be one of the easiest things to integrate with private and working life, and if I recommend an hour a day for every household member can bring in sufficient proceeds to achieve a substantial difference to your life, then hopefully you can perceive some worth in what I'm suggesting. There's just one rule to adhere to at this time and that is, pick one and stick with it. There are literally millions of options out there and the online selling world is constantly fleeting from one newest expert to the next, looking for a get rich quick scheme with zero outlay and minimum input, but trust me as I say, it doesn't exist. This will take a small amount of money to get going and that hour a day from you and your folks to make it work out. It's not complicated, it takes a little effort, but even if you just get as far as a few hundred additional dollars, pounds, euros, yen, whatever, in the month, it will bring you and your group back as one and from there, your online contacts and relations can start to catch a glimpse of a sign of light through the gaming mist.

So here's to a new-found start and I genuinely wish you and your folks a brighter future.