Digital Native men seem to have a real affinity for knowing how and when to cut the ol’ Relationship Deadwood on social media.
Love and Trash reader “XY” was impressed with Ms. Andrea-Montreal Cohen’s latest piece Live With 75 Facebook Friends. So impressed that he quit the Facebook game “Mobsters2″ and deleted all his game-related “friends.”
He sent me the following email, which I’ve edited with his permission.
All photos by myself. Men posing with their best friends. Published with permission.
I cashed out all of my equipment, territory, and weapons and put all out on the table. I gave an announcement that I was leaving the game and for one and all to attack my character to get the loot. All told it was 60 million game dollars. They swarmed like pirahnas at a Weight Watchers swim meet. It was glorious! When all the money was gone (about 5 hours of constant attacks) I said bye and dumped their asses :)
Why? I just got bored. Beating up imaginary baddies, stealing their money, committing faux crimes, networking with others who enjoyed doing the same…..shit got old. Spending more hours on that game than reading a book, writing to friends, or drawing stick figures on scrap paper was beginning to be a drag
.
So that’s why I decided on the Al Pacino “Scarface” ending to my time there. At the end I make my imaginary plunge into the marble fountain in the foyer….blood spraying the globe which reads “The World Is Yours.” Yeah I’m being dramatic, but you just had to be there.
You should have seen the comments on my page. Some indignant, asking how I could leave them. Some calling me a sucker (“but thanks for the loot”). And some….(the most beautiful of my mobbies) refused to take the money if it meant attacking me. They paid their respects, wished me well, and got back to killing and robbing other players (many of whom had just partook of my generosity LMAO!)
I’m sure there is something in the experience that a sociologist would find fascinating or disturbing, but for me – It was the best time I ever had playing that game. Go figure.
Much more entertaining than listening to two IT geeks read their FB feeds out loud to each other.
On the subject of Minimalist Males, the one who wrote the book is Everett Bogue
If you don’t read his blog, do .
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6 non-facebook comments
I’ve played a couple of the FB games, and they were fun for a little while… but I drew the line at making “friends” just for the sake of the game. Lots of folks do it though. Social gaming just never was my thing… anyway well done Mr. Anonymous!
Hey I’m famous now! Hahaha! As a follow up to the story, I did indeed keep about 6 of my game partners as friends after weighing the pros and cons of it all. 6 out of 400 people turned out to actually be friend worthy. Social networking success! Or failure?
bravo! i would call this a success on all fronts: first off you trashed 394 people who had no place in your life, secondly you actually identified 6 people that you care enough about as to share your life with in some kind of way. sounds good all around, no?
It does indeed. Thanks.
I am proud to say that anytime one of my 160 or so FB friends discovers a cool game, that game gets hidden from the first annoying post.
Hmmm. Probably time to unfriend the lot of FB people that I never see actually logged in…
Excellent!
I used to spend entire weekends locked in my apartment playing strategy simulation games like Age of Empires and Sim City – not even networked! Just me against the computer. Unplugging the phone and ordering in for dinner.
Thankfully, that was over a decade ago.