I have written often on the Engagement Level called Disassociative and how they can be perceived as the bad guys, and i have talked about Immersion as good for education and for those socially isolated but…

It is not like immersion doesn’t come with risks, not only for your own heart, but immersion to the extreme is dangerous even for others.

This article was brought to my attention. click here  

It is about a Second Life gaming couple with a young child who were so immersed in the validation of their virtual life that Real Life obligations were considered interruptions and detested, so much so they starved their child near death and they still didn’t care.  

This is because what brought them satisfaction was the validation of themselves in a fun positive way vs the failures real life had left them due to looks, lack of intellect, handicap or opportunities.

How do you fix something like this? You can’t fix opportunities for everyone, or handicaps. Could we put time limits on known immersives to help them balance?

Immersion and balance is the hardest of combinations but balance is the goal. To live in a virtual world gives you freedoms the biological may never know, but the biological avatar needs substance.

With technology leaping forward exponentially and the titillating new things that are coming out to stimulate, this problem is only going to get worse, not better. We need to start really thinking about limitations for all of us.

The intelligent are certainly not immune to technology overdosing, and our children are blinded and without teachers to learn any technological balance.

Here is one brilliant persons framing attempt that seems to have promise.click here 

Here are some other suggestions.

• Get out of the house at least once a week for something fun in-real.
• Mix your calendar with both Real and Virtual events and try to make the actual hours balance. If you don’t have a full time job, make laundry, house cleaning, music listening part of the appointments in your calendar.
• Eat AWAY from your virtual interactions. In other words, actually come out and say, “I have to go to dinner now.” not just brb as you grab junk food.
• Find one topic of interest that requires you to spend time away for research or skill development. (Play an instrument, create a scrapbook of virtual pictures…anything that removes the screen burn out from your eyeballs… lol)

If you find that you cannot talk to real people without interjecting your virtual experiences, you should question your balance…OR take my job.

Enjoy the journey. Hugs, Pam