Post Virtual Reality Sadness
I wonder if the author has ever experienced the joy of reading a good book, or the first showing an amazing movie. Finishing an amazing story, you feel a let down afterwords; the characters were not real and you can never interact with them. The realm of fictional worlds are often more engaging, and seem superior to the world you live your day-to-day life in. The actions and experiences in those stories were more fulfilling, the characters had more agency; their lives or stories were more &quot;real&quot; than ours. After experiencing the greatness of our imaginations, how can our bleak reality measure up? I often find that I start reading my next book immediately after finishing the previous one in attempt to recapture this high, to re-experience the betterness one more time.<p>I don&#x27;t think this effect is specific to a medium. That it can happen with VR is a sign that the technology has matured.