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'Time' Includes 'FarmVille' on List of 50 Worst Inventions, We Nod Knowingly

by Amar Toor on June 1, 2010 at 10:15 AM

Farmville Cow CryingPutting together a list of the best or worst of anything is always an arduous task. Some will agree, most won't, and many will be downright enraged with your selection. But that's also kind of the point. With this in mind, then, Time recently took it upon itself to put together an unranked list of the 50 worst inventions of all time, ranging "from the zany, to the dangerous, to the just plain dumb." And sitting there, shoulder to shoulder with the notorious likes of leaded gasoline and subprime mortgages, is none other than 'FarmVille,' the opiate of the Facebook masses. Also on the list are a few obvious choices (e.g., asbestos, hydrogen blimps, HeadOn), a handful of head-scratchers (e.g., Foursquare, Nintendo Virtual Boy), and one egregious mistake (Snuggie for Dogs). But it's 'FarmVille' that will likely raise the most eyebrows -- probably from the 70 million people who play it religiously.

Ultimately, the question boils down to how you define a 'good' invention. Based on our assessment of Time's list, it isn't enough for a new concept to be merely innovative -- pointless as they are, you've gotta admit that the Tamagotchi was a pretty creative idea. Yet, as 'FarmVille' proves, Time apparently isn't interested in how popular a new product is, but how much good it's done for society, or how far it's advanced the human race. By this metric, you can't really fault its writers for including 'FarmVille' -- especially when you consider how much money and time people waste while tending to their non-existent crops.


We understand the rationale that 'FarmVille's' popularity, to a certain extent, is a justifiable measure of its 'success' as an invention. People wouldn't put up their money or time if it didn't satisfy some need, right? But you could make the exact same argument about cigarettes or hard drugs, and it's hard to argue that either of those have substantially contributed to some greater social good, outside of Lou Reed. At the end of the day, these kinds of informal lists shouldn't carry a whole lot of weight, but they should inspire us to ask ourselves questions about the products we consume. [From: Time, via: Joystiq]

Tags: FarmVille, FourSquare, head on, HeadOn, invention, inventions, List, nintendo, NintendoVirtualBoy, snuggie, SnuggieForDogs, tamagotchi, time, top, videogames, web, worst inventions, WorstInventions

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