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Many escaping from real life to live virtual lives

by WHAS11 News

WHAS11.com

Posted on November 2, 2009 at 4:36 PM

Updated Monday, Nov 2 at 6:14 PM

(WHAS11) - If you watch television and peck away at a keyboard at the same time, you're not alone.
 

Right now, millions of people around the world are lining up their fantasy football team or even planting a virtual garden.
 

It's an escape from reality but as WHAS11’s Kelsey Starks found, it could mean you're living a sort-of virtual life.
 

"This is my property. Okay? These are my neighbors. What I do is I harvest, try to make money, try to build my farm," says WHAS11 production assistant Chris Wright.
 

Chris Wright's farm is actually on her computer.
 

It's the latest craze in the online world of Facebook.  It's a world that's growing fast while our real world seems to be shrinking.
 

Professor Bronwyn Williams says it's just a new way of looking at a very old trend. 
 

He says people have always enjoyed an escape.
 

"You can do something different. You can be a different person, maybe a better sense of yourself," he says.
 

With a couple of clicks, you can be whoever you want to be, including a virtual farmer.
 

“I know it seems silly, but it's addicting," says Chris Wright.
 

It wasn’t difficult for WHAS11’s Kelsey Starks to find people escaping; planting virtual gardens, buying houses and barns, all in their own virtual world.
 

For Chris Wright, it is a fun escape from reality where she gets to experience having a farm, which she never will in real life.
 

According to Professor Bronwyn Williams, this trend is a little worrisome.
 

"There are the families where you have four people in four different rooms doing different things. And that's worrisome," he says.
 

WHAS11’s Frank Stamper is so dedicated to his virtual farm that he checks it at least twice a day, every day.
 

Because of course, those crops have to be watered.  You farm the land, sell what you grow and use the fake money to buy more fake land.
 

"I'm serious. We left on vacation. My wife had to get on every other day just to check on the farm," says Frank Stamper.
 

Some call it addicting, some call it a waste of time.  So what do you call it when your real life and virtual life collide?
 

Facebook started as a social networking site for college students and it continues to grow.
 

Believe it or not, users between 35 and 54 are its fastest growing segment; increasing more than 275% in the last year.
 

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