They are always popping up while you try to skim through your page on Facebook. They keep bugging you with the pop up sounds every five minutes. They are always there making you go crazy and mad if you do not play those online games on Facebook.

These relentless requests keep making life hell for all those who are disinterested in being sucked into this virtual game arena. There is hardly any escape from the requests.

I do confess I do play a couple of these addictive, time killing games. And to my utter surprise once I opened my Facebook inbox there was a message lying in there telling me in plain and simple words that the other person was literally sick with being the receiver of my uncalled for demands: send me candies; send me lives, etc.

I, in all seriousness, felt bad over annoying a person who was irritated by the messages raiding his page. But then I tried to find out if I could just make it stop somehow. To my sheer dismay, that application on my page was sending out those messages on its own. 

As much I want to have a good time by playing these online games, forcing others away from their own personal Facebook accounts is hardly the plan.  I would love to stop these messages from going out to those who do not want them, but I still admit that no matter how much we try to demean these games we actually do like playing them a lot and not because they seep into our souls or change the way we see the world. 

They do not nourish the brightest parts of our brains either. But then I believe that is why I, or other badly hooked players, like them so much.

These games do disrupt the perpetual pattern of worry that keeps us entangled around the clock.  They simply block those grave thoughts we tend to focus on, eventually to give up on finding solutions to the problems and start looking for a way to vent out the frustration. 

While most of us hate to admit being addicted to these online games, there are very few who have never played them at all. The cathartic effect of these games puts us at rest for a while at least. No matter how juvenile it sounds but we all long for the adrenaline rush they provide, when we complete a certain level or achieve a target.  No matter how shallow and fake, but it surely brings some sense of achievement in small packets when there is a power shutdown or a windy day playing havoc with the cable wires outside. These annoying, and simultaneously exciting, remedies do bring us joy in a day cramped with stress and disappointment.

Most of us would hate to confess but we do find a way once or twice a day to open our laptops, desktops, tabs or even phones to play these games.  The only problem is that we have developed a love-hate relationship with them.  On the one hand they are ‘silly’ but then no one wants to lose either.  On the other hand, the pretense takes over and we keep denying how much fun we all draw out of them.

Some even go to the extent of cursing at them, blaming them for being addictive and being dumb in nature.  But the truth is no one stops playing, except for those who never play in the first place.

As much as I do not want to create nuisance for a handful of people who do not indulge in these delights by sending them unwanted messages, I would encourage everyone else to at least stop cursing at them, since they fully serve their purpose. 

They are mindless, they are dumb and they do distract us. They in all their simplicity drag us out of our prosaic daily rut of fatigue and stress.