@klutzgrrl, I often have a bad conscience when I play WoW, even if it's just two or three nights per week, because I didn't see it coming that it would turn into such a hobby. Kind of like belonging to a club -- you meet regularly, and if you don't appear to the meetings, if you don't get along with the others, or if you make the same mistakes too often, you don't get to be on the regular team that often anymore (it's a pretty ambitious raid group, which I love, because I like the challenge). So thank you for this:
I think you have to really think about what you're getting out of a game. Even timewasting is fine IF it is properly relaxing, you enjoy the process and it isn't displacing other things you should be doing.
WoW is replacing a few other things in my life: Playing it renders any other computer games I might play useless, because it has so many aspects (teamwork in a group raid, improving the character's gear, chatting with others, mindlessly farming stuff). I also used to play pen and paper roleplay (AD&D) with good friends, but the group shattered (one moved, two have become parents), and I just miss the fantasy world, and books alone are not enough. My boyfriend also plays WoW and we usually play together in the same room and talk about all kinds of stuff while playing, so I really enjoy that bonding time as well (oh noes, we are such geeks!).
On Facebook: I still have accounts for Facebook and other social networking sites, but I set all settings to "email me whenever something happens", and I hardly ever log on. I also call, text or email my friends when something's up and vice versa.
