How do you balance Habbo and the demands of daily life? Are you throwing shapes in Club NX under the desk at work? Do you call in sick so you can play one more round of balloon game?

I feel that everyday I am making a choice between Habbo and real life. 

Choosing to play Habbo has, in many ways, been a really great experience for me. Delicious pixel aesthetics, opportunities to display characteristics which society might reject and a diverse community make for a hugely tempting and rewarding world. I've been able to build strong friendships with people I'd never normally have the opportunity to meet and I've been able to discuss things which I have felt difficult to confront in real life. The greatest thing is being able to share experiences with such a colourful array of people and learn about other peoples' struggles/triumphs.

I think people call it escapism, but there is also a level of confrontation with reality that is deeper than real life. Here, People openly talk about mental health, their private lives or about their different lifestyles in countries impossibly far way- things which are not normally accessible in real life. I guess this makes me wonder whether I'm experiencing a deeper level of life, or just running away from it. 

I guess this is a bit of a modern-day philosophical problem. Is it not "ok" to spend your time escaping from reality/building a virtual reality? do humans need this in order to express things that society has forced us to surpress? I don't know the answer at all. I keep telling myself off for using Habbo as a way of expressing certain sides of my personality, but perhaps it's healthy?

I have found that the more I build a life on Habbo, the more detached I become from my real-life existence. I've recently made friends with people in North America, East Asia and Oceania- all different timezones to the UK and, as a result, spending time with these great people has affected my sleep pattern. This makes functioning in my own life a bit more difficult- I have been unreliable at meeting up with friends or submitting work because I've been up til 4/5/6/7 the night/morning before!

I guess the most bittersweet part of Habbo is that the more people I find that I like, the more time I want to spend with them and I find myself choosing to make more time for them than the next essay due or the next social engagement I have to do. I promise myself that I'll just do "one more hour" or leave the essay "one more day" and these days become weeks and months. Things in life become more difficult, however, my online life becomes vastly more rewarding. It is hard to know how this will be in the future- will this vicious cycle continue until I have no life and just Habbo? Is there a way to a healthy balance of both? Or does one just cut themselves off completely from it?

To conclude, I suppose I would like to know how Habbo fits into your life and how you find ways to balance it with day-to-day activites?