Very interesting article, and a real “ouch” moment for me when I realised that all my escapism growing up had exactly this effect. By becoming engaged with fictional worlds through films, books and games you can start to disengage with the world, finding nothing so interesting and vibrant in it (this is a particular risk if you are young and haven’t found activities and people you value in reality yet). The scary thing was when I was realised the characters in my books felt more real than people in reality. If you have trouble connecting with people books offer ready-made connections that can distract you from getting the social skills you need to form meaningful relationships in real life.
To an extent I think I am still prey to this, so does anyone have advice on ways to balance your escapist pleasures so you can still enjoy them without losing the vibrancy of real life?
It occurs to me that even more seductive than a future world might be a plausible, more formiddable self. (It suddenly occurs to me why many video game player characters are either conspicuously characterless, like Valve protagonists, or rather unlikable people (the ‘why do I have to play as this jerk?’ problem).
Very interesting article, and a real “ouch” moment for me when I realised that all my escapism growing up had exactly this effect. By becoming engaged with fictional worlds through films, books and games you can start to disengage with the world, finding nothing so interesting and vibrant in it (this is a particular risk if you are young and haven’t found activities and people you value in reality yet). The scary thing was when I was realised the characters in my books felt more real than people in reality. If you have trouble connecting with people books offer ready-made connections that can distract you from getting the social skills you need to form meaningful relationships in real life.
To an extent I think I am still prey to this, so does anyone have advice on ways to balance your escapist pleasures so you can still enjoy them without losing the vibrancy of real life?
It occurs to me that even more seductive than a future world might be a plausible, more formiddable self. (It suddenly occurs to me why many video game player characters are either conspicuously characterless, like Valve protagonists, or rather unlikable people (the ‘why do I have to play as this jerk?’ problem).