“Consider what it would take to have free will.” Sam harris
It seems pretty obvious that virtual environments can be favorable terrain for many people. And in many ways. Particularly now, as if “we cannot change the fact of COVID-19”, one thing we can change is “how we adapt and move into the next phases of our lives.” news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08
For example, many educators are working to create virtual spaces for their students to have a “kind of organic interaction.” news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08
Others enable virtual communities where the presence of a person gives an illusion of non-mediation:
“An” illusion of non-mediation “occurs when a person does not perceive or does not recognize the existence of a medium in his communication environment and responds as he would if the medium were not there.” CyberPsychology and Behavior 10 (1): 45-56
That is, “a level of experience in which technology and the external physical environment disappear from the phenomenal consciousness of the user.” CyberPsychology and Behavior 10 (1): 45-56
Imagine that.
This occurs especially because virtual spaces allow the creation of new possibilities for socialization, highlighting “the importance of the sense of presence as a mediating variable between the media experience and the emotions it induces.” CyberPsychology and Behavior 10 (1): 45-56
For example, the emotions triggered by the fact of being “in control” of not allowing in a virtual community, environment, space … a negative perception that could have practical consequences in the “real life” of a person. Where that person’s situation can be defined by others. Where they can feel nothing more than passive and powerless actors in the narrative configuration of what happens to them.
But in a virtual space, “virtualists”, as they might choose to call themselves, can dominate their identity.
Free will enabled.
Even the presence of someone in a virtual environment as a passive and invisible agent at the beginning could give way to a progressive incorporation adapted to the needs (and desires) of said someone. In this way, said virtual reality “is not only influenced by the graphic realism of the environment, the visualization dimension and other technological characteristics, but to a great extent by the characteristics of the experience, including emotional ones, that the technology provides.” CyberPsychology and Behavior 10 (1): 45-56
Furthermore, in the event that a person does not want to participate in the communicative dynamics of a virtual space, they can feed on a very significant amount of information, which in the “real world” they cannot necessarily do so.
In a virtual environment, the person recognizes himself as a key figure in his situation.
“You are not controlling the storm and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.” Sam harris