Lessons of Jamaa #25: Animal Jam Obsession

Hi Everyone.

I have absolutely NO idea on what to post about today.

I don't know if a lot of you read Snowyclaw's Animal Jam Spirit, but the post today mentions how I'm going to be an author on there.

So, I might not always have a chance to post everyday if I post on there, or If I don't. Last year I had to wake up very early to post on Animal Jam Freedom, and I would spend more time in the morning on the computer taking care of Animal Jam related things then I'd prefer. Posts on Animal Jam Goldfish take a lot of time and thinking then you may assume they do. So, if you don't see a post on AJG, you could check AJS to see if I've posted about the Daily Item or not. I'm sorry, I'll try to get some posts ready in advance too, yet I still have a few weeks until school.

This leads me into my next topic..

Animal Jam Obsession. A lot of people have it, and play all day long. There are two types of jamming, Jamming for the fun of it because you're bored, or Jamming because your addicted and you have to do it all day long because you don't want to do other things. From around February 2012 - June 2012 I was pretty addicted to Animal Jam, like bad. I didn't want to do other stuff, and it got in the way of my studying (Which yes, sadly affected my grades) and doing other stuff that I should really take care of. 

I mean really, the only good thing about spending all day on Animal Jam is that it gives a lot of time for trading, but if you don't have a lot of stuff to trade, I don't know what to say. I don't want to say that I've spent my whole vacation on the computer, do you? I currently don't know where I stand. I don't know if I'm addicted, or just playing because I have nothing else going on. We'll see where that stands when school starts, and you can tell me.

I once overheard a very wise comment in someones den. "I don't really care about rares, It's not like I can put them on my resume when I'm older" If you don't know what a resume is, it's a form you fill out about yourself, and all the good things you've done and the skills you have to apply for a certain job. Writing down, "I had 2 top hats and Non member bat wings on Animal Jam" won't really help you, now would it?
Didn't think so.

You may or may not observe, but 75% of what people jam for on AJ is for rares, if you have them or not, or obsess over them or not. A lot of the people who trade all day long, including yours truly ever once in awhile, it's obvious they only play AJ for rares. Others meet friends through rares. How? Well, people automatically judge others if they should be friends or not through rares, it's a stereotype. Even I do it a lot more then I'd like to admit. I don't usually buddy someone who doesn't have a lot of rares, because one, my buddy list is extremely full and two, because I'm human, and judging like that is just what we do. A lot of people trade now and then, even if they're not a big collector. Rares are a conversation starter, something to talk about.

Now, don't get the wrong message from that last paragraph, I was proving a point that rares are what most people play AJ for.  Which is a big problem at AJHQ. I am almost positive they would remove rares in a heartbeat if they had the opportunity, but they can't. They would lose a lot of money, and jammers. A lot of jammers become member so they can wear they cool items. Imagine on Thursday's update, a HUGE catalog comes out, and every single item ever sold would be in there. *Poof* No rares anymore. *Poof* Half of AJ's population quits. I don't know if it's possible to grasp our tiny minds around, because most of us are so fed up in trading (if you think you are or not) It's hard to imagine that. AJHQ would lose a lot, and rares are already out of control and they're trying to manage them by making Rare Item Mondays and releasing them every now and then. (Usually in months there are no holidays.) 

Whoa, this article got off topic. It's really hard to convince you what I'm trying to make a point out of, but trust me, at some point you'll wake up one day, log onto to AJ and be like, *Pop* OH, NOW I GET WHAT THAT CRAZY GOLDFISHYPUPPY MEANT! Trust me, It'll happen. Do you really want to spend your childhood preteenhood (is that a word? it should be) on the computer? Some of us I know hide our AJ world from our friends, including myself and snowyclaw. That's not really good. It means it's something were embarrassed of, and we can't admit it. Yet I remember in one of Snowy's Jamaasian Movement posts, it mentioned how Animal Jam is an escape. Yes, an escape. A place to live a new life, a different world. It can be a good escape or a bad escape. If Animal Jam makes you happy, go for it, go play Animal Jam! (In moderation, of course.) But if it doesn't, then why play? Most times a lot of people quit, or at least say they are quitting because of drama. They might say it's because of school, or they got scammed, but trust me, it's drama. 

Drama isn't all bad, don't get me wrong. A little bit is good. Why? Because if you don't have drama  when you're young, and you grow up thinking the whole world is perfect, trust me, you'll have a wake up call and be in tears. You may think drama is just gossip about relationships, rumors, he-did-this, she-did-that, but no. As dictionary.com states it, "any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional,conflicting, or striking interest or results:" 

See? So pretty much anything that causes you stress or a lot of TYPING IN CAPS LOCK WITH EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! On Animal Jam, is stress. Been there, done that. Back to what I was saying, if Animal Jam isn't a sweet escape (Side note - Love that song by Gwen Stefani) Then why play? Remember that post a few weeks back? It was called "I'm sorry, friends" Yeah, well, at that time I was going through a lot of drama. And I'm sorry to say, there really isn't a cure for this. I've tried a lot. And I mean a lot of different methods. I guess I suggest if you have that one friend that just NEEDS drama in their life, delete them, and be like, "I'm done with you.". I've tried that one. It kinda worked. 

Yep, I'm off topic again. This post has turned out to be a lot longer then I intended. Oh well. Anywho, I've seen this commercial on Tv, It goes something like this: *Shows picture of toddler with a tv remote that has a dull look on his face* "(Blank young age to blank young age) Is the best learning time in your child's life, do you really want them to be watching Tv all the time when they could be learning, that's why we've provided you with... blah, blah blah." I actually took away something from that. Animal Jam isn't really teaching us stuff but Faster Typing. Props to AJHQ, they tried to teach us about Animals and Plants, but let's be honest, who really reads Journey Book facts? They need to be a little more serious about educating, yet people would ignore that, and go back to their usual life of trading. I bet even I would do that. Shame on myself.

I guess if I wanted you to take anything away from this post, is to use Animal jam in moderation and try other things. Sure, you may HATE (And that's a big word) walking the dogs, but why not do it? You're bored sitting on the bridge (Hopefully the unrare right one) in Jamaa, and none of your buddies are on, why not go walk them? It will be better exercise for you, and your dogs will be very happy. If you don't have dogs, why not a walk? Nothings wrong with that. Or something else. Whatever chores you have, or activity's you really should do, or even fun stuff. Your neighbor is playing basketball alone? Why not go shoot some hoops with him/her? I challenge you to do something today, when you're bored on Animal Jam, because we all are bored on AJ sometime. I will too. I will try to do something unique everyday instead of sobbing around Jamaa. And, I'll even throw in this. If you comment with whatever you've done today besides be on AJ, I'll send you mech angel wings. (Please be honest)

WOW. *Scrolls up to see post* I've wrote all this, yet had no clue what to post about?

P.s. Make sure to check out Goldfishypuppy's Blog and Animal Jam Goldfish Contests!