The internet at age 40: Farmville rules

TAMPA - The internet has certainly changed over the years, even changing the way we speak. "Googling" is now a verb, and most people don't go an hour, let alone a day, without going online.

These days though, even the guys who invented the internet say they never imagined what many would be using it for the most: Farmville.

"All my friends play it," admits Amanda Kern, a student at The University of Tampa.

Farmville is an application on Facebook, and according to it's creator Zynga, since June, more than 62 million people have signed in to harvest their imaginary crops.

"And then you get points and coins and higher levels and stuff," Kern says.

On college campuses across the country, students admit to spending hours and hours planting virtual eggplants. Facebook says it's their most popular game by far -- but it's not just kids going online to make believe.

"I just got into it, and each day I do a little bit more," says retired military man Pete Fells.

Fells joined Facebook to connect with friends and quickly got sucked in to Mafia Wars, Facebook's second most popular game. He's still networking, but now for about an hour a day, he's also getting in touch with his mafioso side.

"We help each other out building our Mafias up for stronger families," adds Fells.

Professionals say spending more than two hours on-line is too much. And if it's interfering with you're real life at all, well, you're in trouble.

"One of the signs of addiction is if you are getting defensive about your addiction. So, if you're on there and your spouse is harassing you a little bit, then maybe it's a sign you're on too much," said chiropractic neurologist Dr. Nelson Mane.

The games have spawned other pages like the "I Hate Farmville" Facebook page, where some complain their significant others are harvesting crops at all hours of the morning. Most say it's a fad that will likely pass; kind of like the idea of dancing down the aisle to your favorite pop song -- stunt that made a bride and groom from the midwest an instant You Tube sensation.

Forty years ago, the first message attempted via internet was by it's creator UCLA Professor Leonard Kleinrock. He typed the "L" and the "O" for login, and then the system crashed. These days, of course, the internet is massive. If you spent one minute reading every web site in existence, it would take you 31,000 years. And by 2013 the internet is projected to be four times bigger.

So to the invention that's given us a gift that keeps on giving, happy birthday.