...to believe that online Bingo is a solitary hobby?

[stopfaffing]

I've thought about posting this for ages now, every time I see an online Bingo advert on TV which portrays groups of people playing and laughing together and being sociable.

Today's advert shows a group of people sitting in a living room with their various hand-help devices laughing and chatting and playing their own personal bingo games. Does that ever really happen? It's all shit, isn't it? Online Bingo is nothing like visiting a proper bingo hall with pals on a Friday night, and it never will be.

But am I wrong and unreasonable, what's your experience with online bingo?

I agree with you. I much prefer going to the club.

I suppose you could do it like in the advert but what's the point in that!

Even in the clubs you can split screen and play online at the same time now which I also don't see the point of.

YANBU but advertising a lonely person in their living room wearing sweat pants and arming their face full of jaffa cakes with Netflix on in the background (is that just me on a Friday night?) Would really sell it would it?

Junosmum good point.

Is MNing a solitary hobby too?

People are not literally sitting WITH other players, but do they chat?

Real life bingo doesn't seem that sociable either because any chatting usually causes all the regulars to make cats bum faces.

Trills MNing is something I do alone although I may discuss issues raised with real people from time to time. I imagine that if you are playing a game of bingo you have to focus entirely on that, so it is not like playing a board game with friends/family where you chat and interact with each other at the same time.

These adverts make it look like a social interactive activity, but that is false. Barbara, yes I see that chatting whilst playing would be irritating to regulars who have a vast number of games that they play at the same time.

I agree that it's an activity that you do on your sofa with nobody else physically nearby.

I was just considering whether "solitary" is the right word for it.

Aren't the adverts just promoting the 'social' chat room part of it though? So saying it's like being in a room full of people playing, rather than suggesting that you actually are physically playing in a group. That's what I've always thought anyway (not that I've thought too deeply about it)!

Bish good point, it would be good if someone who uses these on-line bingo sites could comment and give us the bigger picture.

Trills, if you are all playing on your devices in a group you are not solitary but you are focusing on your device, not anyone else in the room. Anti social may be a better description. Its not a problems if everyone's happy to do it, it's just that the adverts seem to promote a social interactive side that I don't see working in reality. Still, when has an advert shown real life lol.