The Consumerist brings us a new theory about why Soap Operas are losing their ratings. The factor? Facebook! Oh the drama!

Soap operas continue to wash out, and demographic analysis suggests audiences may be shifting away from the programming to spend more time on Facebook games.

According to an Adweek story that submits the theory, the rise of such time sinks as FarmVille and CityVille has coincided with a drop in soap opera ratings. When FarmVille was introduced in 2007, All My Children and One Life to Live both drew 1.9 ratings in the female 25 to 54 demographic, but ratings for the shows dipped respectively to 1.3 and 1.4 this year, now that FarmVille draws 47 million players each month and CityVille hypnotizes 88 million.

An author quoted in the story says soap opera viewers have substituted soaps for ‘Villes:

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“Women at home used to have these virtual friends, these soap stars. Now their virtual friends have come alive, and they don’t need one-way conversations. I grew up on Susan Lucci, but Susan Lucci doesn’t talk back to me.”
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What do you think of the theory?

“And I don’t have a negative point of view on it. I just think it’s a very old tradition and if you look back to what marriage symbolises in the first place… it has nothing to do with why we get married today.”