Beyond Immersion: Coming Full Circle

The "proposing marriage" thread got me thinking about this...

We talk about immersion in SL, the feeling of "being there". We all debate about graphics features, and more realistic avatars, and animations. We want clouds, and shadows. Some of us want voice.

I've experienced this feeling of immersion. We all have, that's why we're here and why we keep coming back. But there are times when all of that doesn't matter at all.

I usually chat in the Local Chat window, the chat history. When I'm really getting into an intense dialog with someone, I stop noticing the world around me. My focus narrows down, and all I'm aware of is the text.

And then even the text doesn't matter any more. We could be talking in IM on Yahoo, or on the phone, or face to face. It narrows down to just two people, speaking from their hearts, sharing their minds. The medium becomes completely irrelevant, completely transparent. Distance is annihilated.

Somehow, across the miles, through all the pixels and silicon and wires, two people touch.

Does that happen to you, too?

And that, my dear Lindal, is my definition of "immersion"

Friday hugz, Jerry.

You bet it does!

No. Not fully. No matter what I am doing in SL, there is a detachment for me. The real world is always running in the background. It's how I keep my perspective. I don't feel immersed, more engrossed when inworld. If RL necessitates it, I can break from SL very easily.

Yeah!

Pep (Then you find out they lied to you. And it doesn't happen again.)

yes, over 4000 miles for me

Yes...Which is why I was heartbroken.

Yes...Which is why people are falling in love inworld, and moving across entire continents, sight unseen.

Yes...Which is why it disturbs me when people are malicious to others here in the forums.

Yes...Which is why my best friend is someone I've never met.

Yes...Which is why.....[fill in the blank].

I was just thinking the other day how lately SL has become a completely different level of immersion for me too. I used to experience what you speak of on a daily basis, with a few very close friends of mine. Helping them through personal issues, or them helping me. SL just melts away, and it is just beautiful.

Lately though, with my businesses taking off, it is a whole new feeling. It's almost a distance I am feeling, but it is an all powerful feeling distance. The only way I can describe it is to compare it to Neo in the Matrix when he masters himself and becomes "outside" of the matrix. This is how I feel in SL lately. My concerns are all so focused now, and my place and role in SL is much bigger. I have many many people who enjoy my fight league, and my RP sim. It is next to impossible for me to enjoy SL on a personal level anymore.

There are aspects of this that I deeply miss, but also, I know I could never go back to how I used to experience SL.

Part of me wishes I took the blue pill I guess.

Funny thing, my computer is in a quasi-music room that's sound dampened and blacked out from exterior lights. So, in a way, it's already a partial sensory deprivation room. (=_=)

So, when I pop on the computer and log into SL, really, the only sights and sounds I get are those that come from the grid. So... Immersion... Yeah, got that. (^_^)y

You've met them.
Friday hugz, Honey!

Even though I'm reading what people type, I remember as though the words had been spoken - like a good book, heh.

One thing I've always wanted to get around to marketing, was a kind of cell phone hardware app.

What it does is put little cartoon hands and feet onto the cell phone, along with showing the face of the person talking on the little screen. In turns, happy or sad or angry, or whatever they are sounding like - sort of like the cartoon people in the jibjab.com videos.

If they speak in an excited manner, the phone it starts dancing and hopping around excitedly. And they will get piccies sent back now and then so they can sort of see what's going on. Maybe they could even wave or walk around on your table a little bit.

It would be like having your buddy as a real, little friend for the duration of the call.

And ladies, no putting your phone in your back jeans pocket before hanging up, I won't accept *any* responsibility for what happens if you do that.

I would buy one, and call you, just to be able to say "I had the Guvnah of Caledon in the palm of my hand..."

Yes it happens to me too.

My best friends are people I have never met in RL.

Yes.

Aww, thanks Lin! *big hugs back*

Often?

Which is part of why I prefer text, like a good book, I totally get lost in our feelings, as other cares melt away and we become entranced...

It doesn't matter if it's with chat or bouncing between IMs, when at a club, live music, exploring, or cuddling.

Which isn't to say I won't necessarily respond to phone calls, voicemails, knocks on the door, emails just as I do IMs, SL is an aspect of RL after all, and it might be an IM that went to email as I TP'd...

"Live to the point of tears" is a quote that has been especially poignant recently for friends of mine, which I suppose we could change to "live second life to the point of tears", but wouldn't that mean you were living RL to the point of tears too?

This phenomenon has been documented all the way back to the early days of telegraph, in discussions between telegraph operators during slack times on the wire.

I'll bet it goes back further than that...to written correspondence, smoke signals, shouts across the valley, and affectionate grunts in a dark cave. Which is my point, really...it's the communication that's important, not the medium. McLuhan was full of it.

yep and I married him (in RL)

I think telegraphs were the first time strangers could communicate in real-time without actually being in the same place... I suppose semaphore was close, but there you could still see the person you were "talking to", and there really wasn't any "slack time" where ships were in sight.

And there's a difference between real-time communication and correspondence. Trust me, I know the difference... my wife and I met on a bulletin board, back in the bad old days when the Internet was still called the ARPAnet and you had to be a university or defense contractor to get on it. When the first dial-up chat systems turned up, they were a whole different kind of immersion... even if they were so much more limited than even the most primitive BBS.

Oh my word, yes, dear Lindal! Time stands still for me when I am deep in conversation with someone. There's many a time I'll be completely engaged in a conversation, look past the IM window and realize:

a) other people have entered/left the area
b) entire open chat conversations have taken place without me even noticing
c) the SL day/night has moved along, and it's pitch black outside or it's a bright sunny morning...
d) RL time has not stood still

And beyond these...the miles between us slip away, and I have often felt as if the person is right next to me...as if I really could see that person - reach over and touch skin or hair.

I've never experienced this before (in a text-based system, I mean). It's really been quite a remarkable feeling for me, one I'm happy to have had, and continue to have.

I don't have any deep friendships in SL, just lots of acquaintances. I think I'm fully immersed in the world all the time, unless I'm trying to sort my inventory or fix a problem. My deep relationship is with SL as a whole, I suppose.

Sometimes I wonder about the RL person behind an avatar I'm chatting with, but mostly I think of myself in-world talking to other avatars about things going on in SL.
The only RL stuff I inevitably find myself talking about is music.

Yes, yes and even more yes.

I am immersed almost all of the time in SL. Everything that happens I feel in RL.

It both scares and thrills me. I love that I can be such good friends with someone who lives so far away, but it scares me that I can be so attached. I've had my fingers burned more than once, and it's hurt me right through to RL aswell. I've had ups and downs, but no matter what, I love this place, and I love the connections I've made.
The friendships I've made through SL have helped me learn more about me and who I am. I am so grateful to the people who let me tag along with them hehe