With every hour we spend on sites such as Facebook, social networking is gradually encroaching on our spare time. Okay, no problem - spend less time online. But in some game-based sites such as Second Life and the like, time offline can mean sacrificing money or losing status. To get around this problem, the position of 'social networking hourly employee' has arisen in China.

When the original player is busy, they employ somebody to perform repetitive taks to keep them ahead in the game until they are ready to resume play. With users now able to transfer virtual money earned in these games into real currency, it can make financial sense to hire in a freelancer. It may only be happening in China right now but you can be sure this is something likely to arise in Europe and the US soon.