Immersive Illness ? - J. Collins

Immersive Illness?

A challenge that concerns me the most is lurking on the horizon, one we don't yet understand the full scope of. As Immersive Education and other forms of personal virtual reality become more realistic and compelling we're going to see "immersive illness" become more common and more difficult to deal with. Although this is an issue today we're somewhat protected by the limitations of today's personal computers and game consoles (they just aren't powerful enough...yet), but in another decade or more it'll be a different story altogether. Nobody knows exactly what impact insanely realistic, media-rich virtual reality will have on society. We're already dealing with early forms of immersive illness, such as addiction, alienation, mental schisms, and more, but today it's not a problem that affects a large percentage of users. We don't see massive problems today for a number of reasons, including rather low-quality virtual environments and limitations on how much time we spend in these environments. But what happens when the visual and audio quality becomes indistinguishable from reality, the technology becomes truly mainstream, and a substantial portion of education takes place in such environments and not in a real classroom? With massive power comes massive problems. Last week I was asked how big this problem will be, and I responded that nobody knows for sure but I'd estimate that the at-risk population can be calculate by adding the percentage of people with addiction problems to the percentage of society that suffer some form of mental illness. That's a big chunk of society. Is it all gloom and doom? Certainly not, but it's a grand challenge we're not even remotely prepared for today. As with other disruptions society will eventually adapt, but I think we're in for a very rough ride.  

Professor Aaron Walsh from the interview "Virtual reality and higher education: Another perspective" at  http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html   teaching_in_vr_.html


Immersive Illness - a really unbelievable situation.  After reading the article, Prof. Walsh's response and insight into the future and the potential downside to immersive education, I was really struck by what we don't know!  How will all this incredible technology impact us and everyone we know?

It makes sense though.  Just a few years ago I didn't even have a phone, now practically everything I do I need my phone for.  I am never without it as it is my connection to much of my social world, school world, banking, research, etc.  So when I think of the future in terms of the "spread" of this immersive reality and how it can grow and impact all we do, that's scary!

Addictions are a very difficult illness.  One that sneaks up on most people.  They are enjoying an activity, smoking, drinking, gaming and all of a sudden they become dependent upon it.  What was looked at as a non-threatening activity at one point becomes a significant "drag" on their life.  It was amazing to hear that some students have become addicted to gaming to the point that it impacted their school and social lives.  I'm not sure how this type of illness can be dealt with.  As with any other - I would think that awareness and preventative measures would go a long way.