That guy who plays video games is taking over the world

On Twitter this a.m. I found out that online gaming has passed e-mail as the second-most popular activity online. The Washington Post article mentions that social networking is still the #1 online activity but is this only scary to me??

The article does pay homage to the type of guy I referenced in the title. And since this class is mostly women I'm hoping to slide by with a brief jab in the side of those guys who spend endless hours playing video games long into their 30's...no, it's not hot. But now THAT guy, and your friends (and likely my friends) are spending more time playing online games than most anything else? And since everyone is connected to online activities 24/7 these days, that means some people may spend more time playing online games than most other activities!

I can see it now: You spend XX hours sleeping, XX hours watching TV and XXXXX hours playing online games in your lifetime.

Weird. Are the games really that interesting? Are people getting smarter through Farmville? Help!

Get your virtual wallet out

Hey, remember when our whole class was ridiculed for not playing games on Facebook? Well, here's why. A new study of 600 teens age 13-17 shows that gaming on Facebook is growing.

More than 75 percent of online teens play games online, and they spend twice as much time playing on social networks as on the web. Also, more than a third of Facebook gamers spend at least 50 percent of their time on the site playing games. Long story short: Facebook games are addicting online teens everywhere.

Although we may not fit the teenage game-playing demographic, it's not surprising that marketers are starting to look to social networking games to get their brands out there. Teens do control a large portion of the market, whether it's through their parents' money or the influence that they hold over their parents' buying decisions.

Not to mention the money actually spent on games. In fact, games bring in the majority of teenage social network spending. According to the study, 15 percent had spent money to purchase "currency in a game to buy virtual items," 14 percent had purchased "accessories for their avatar in a game," and only half that (7 percent) reported buying a "virtual gift."

Nearly half (49%) of those who had purchased said they had allowances for online spending. Would you want an allowance for online gaming? Would you allow your kids to have one?