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Suffering from post-Avatar depression? Virtual worlds that become too real
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Read the Avatar Forums thread here: Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible. - Avatar-Forums.com So....James Cameron and his team have created a world so realistic—so desirable—that a slew of people are now suffering from depression at the realization that world of Pandora isn't real. They long after a world like Pandora but are stuck with their own reality on Earth. Interesting. This tells me two things:
What do you think? Is this something we should continue pursuing, or is it dangerous to our mental health? How deeply do things such as World of Warcraft and Avatar affect you psychologically and imaginatively? Are you looking forward to the next big thing, or are you more concerned about whether you should find a better way to tune into reality? |
Having watched a cam version I was left with liking some of the story lines.
That's about it. It would be interesting to get the full treatment and see how I feel. Not likely. I haven't been to a moving picture house since the 1980s when someone took me on her birthday. |
I have never played video games. (I don't think Pac-Man counts)
I do have very realistic dreams however. Sometimes I wake up with a longing feeling for where I was just moments before. My dreams are as real as my awake life. No lingering depression though. The thousands of books I've read, have left deep long lasting mind's eye images. I was a little bummed for awhile that I couldn't really live in Lothlorien. (but I was 11 at that time.) What is real? Didn't that question come up in the movie Matrix? The Toltec Masters believe we are dreaming 24 hours a day. Our waking and sleeping dreams. The only dangers I've heard about, WoW, (and others) is that it's so easy for people to escape into a land other than the mundane daily physical plane and its requirements. I am a computer widow. My ex-husband could not stop playing "Ages of Empires" and others, during almost all of his time after work. That reminds me of something. It's not too late for me to sign up for the book discussion at the library. |
I can somewhat relate to the Avatar depression group. I had a twinge of sadness after the movie because I knew that our world will never be like Pandora and the relationship that the Na'vi have with the biosphere of Pandora will never be real either. The way the movie is constructed, the music, the cinematography, everything about it makes you love the Na'vi and Pandora and develop a real emotion on whether or not it's demoed for rock.
Not many movies have this big of a reaction out of me, especially a reaction of longing for it to be real. I think ring is right; a dream that you wanted to be real so bad can have the exact same effect. I also agree with you Baraka. The moment a dev team creates a world as engrossing and awe-inspiring as Pandora in a videogame, we're all doomed. :) WoW isn't nearly as engrossing as Avatar but I can see a game being made that could do it. The visual and aural effect is what did it in Avatar. The music, the amazing presentation, the flawless blend of CGI are what made this idea so heartfelt. The Na'vi and its world have been done in the past, but imagery portrayed as beautifully as in Avatar hasn't. The absolute reason Avatar worked so well is because the animation and CGI in the movie is absolutely indistinguishable from real life imagery. When a game does this, or comes close to this, I think the same feeling will erupt in people. Except they will be able to quench their thirst. WoW addiction is bad but it will be nothing compared to an MMO that has the same effect on people as Avatar. |
Really? Depression from a film?
The way I felt after walking out of the movie was akin to finishing a really good book. If your imagination does not run wild and free while you're reading, transporting your mind and soul to another universe, you're doing things differently than me... |
I wasn't depressed but I was a little saddened at how fat and gross our world is and especially how people behave toward each other. I knew it already but watching avatar is like twisting the knife.
I think we should continue pursuing such fantasy projects. They're what inspire us as a whole to become better. Have you ever seen that show from the History Channel on the original Star Trek? That inspired sooo many budding scientists to build a ton of new inventions. I'm looking forward to the next big thing, but then I don't really have a problem balancing my life with these things. |
How bad could it be if everyone became wire-headed to a utopian world?
The bloody wars could end (the real sticky visceral pain bloody sort.) We might already be inventing the good nanny machines, to tend and water us. (A sort of cogent subconcious desire to survive and yet 'do no harm') It might give our beloved Gaia a chance to heal too. I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's Memory Of Earth That explains my current synapse firings. I have no grasp on what the young folk of this era are dealing with. So much has lept in just a few decades. My Grandma as a young woman was a Flapper in the 20's My young Mother had to endure the frigid colorless 50's I surfed the echoes of the beat, and the first of the punk era. We're just brief blinks in this world & there's so much to see. |
I await the day when we can begin transference from our physical state, to a superior dreamstate which can simulate or surpass our current ability to take in the 5 senses.
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We should absolutely pursue this. It might be effective in culling the herd.
(you've got to be kidding me.) |
I agree with secretmethod, people liked a foreign world so much they want to kill themselves?
They have clearly not seen what earth has to offer. One of the big reasons I go hiking and like to ridge walk the top of mountains is because it is absolutely breathtaking. Maybe these people need to get their asses off their couches and actually visit the world they live on. |
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this. |
Wow...this is pretty crazy imo. I agree with blahblah454 - there are plenty of natural wonders to look at and explore that will leave you breathless and in awe of earth.
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How old are the rest of these people that were interviewed?
Mr. Hill is seventeen. |
I heard about this yesterday.
My thoughts then were "How pathetic! Get off the computer or the couch and go enjoy the life you do have" My thoughts now? Exactly the same. Pathetic. |
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We are all in the same soup here.
Some of us find escape in a bottle of ethanol, or a bottle of pills. Some of us find escape with food, sports, porn, anger, self pity, fear, rage, and so on. I have found myself judging others at times for their method of 'escape' I'm the same as you, and you're the same as me. |
yeah.. because that's all there is to life.. working.
let's go explore a world that will never exist and be all depressed and sad instead of taking the life we do have by the horns and having fun with it. yeah.... pathetic. |
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when humanity invades nature, we just destroy it. |
The Avatar response looks like a 'run of the mill' existential crisis. The replies in this thread run along the same vein and for some reason it's cracking me up. That or image of the 'Church of the Na'vi".
I don't really see this as any different than any other utopian fantasy. Some people will get over it, some people will be consumed by it. Such is life. |
I'd like to reply to this with something deep or meaningful but I just can't. This is with out a doubt one of the saddest things I've ever heard and actually makes me a little angry. Get off your ass and go and see the world we actually live in and maybe try to make your own life worth living...the depression should clear up pretty quick.
Jesus just the fucking arrogance of it makes my blood boil...The amount of suffering this world sees on a daily basis, starvation, war, natural disasters, extreme poverty, disease, homelessness...and people are depressed because their sad little lives aren't like a make believe place in a movie? Are you kidding me? Just unbelievable. |
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Ha, all art is dangerous, then. Plato was on the right track in the Republic, but we should go beyond just the poets; we should banish all artists of all walks and media.
Have you guys thought for a moment that the emotional reaction to the film was because of their emotional attachment/concern for/engagement with the real world? |
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People and their stupid grass is greener complex. |
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I don't think this film actually caused anyone to become depressed. I wouldn't give it that much credit. |
Ennui?
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We saw the film in 3-D and while it was entertaining and certainly visually new and exciting, I as well am a little confused why anyone would come away from it with the reactions cited in the article. After all, it was a movie. To think that any world, as beautiful and utopian as it may be, is not going to be fraught with both ugliness and mundanity on a regular basis is pretty naive and the only thing to say about that, without being too mean, would be 'time to grow up - even if it were possible you wouldn't be any happier in Nav'i with this kind of thinking.' Our world is full of beauty and adventure and opportunity for fulfillment - both material and spiritual, but no one is going to 'plug you into it'.
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So yes I consider it quite arrogant and very sad that people living in a world with access to so many things most people will never have are getting depressed because life isn't as good as a fantasy. |
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That they have access to so many things is a part of the problem. That and they're probably already depressives (yes, I reiterate). |
This reminds me of a Henry Rollins quote on weed. Just replace "pot" and "plant" with "movie".
"You would think that pot had some kind of power; I mean come on, it's a plant, not a reason for living. Controlled by a plant, how hilarious. A plant! A fucking plant!" It's a movie about a fantasy world. Key words: movie, fantasy. Movies and fantasies are both for entertainment purposes only. People depressed by Avatar obviously suffer from some sort of problem (other than depression) that prohibits them from seperating real and unreal. This is what the world has come to, huh? People being depressed by entertainment. Wow. Get a real reason to be depressed, then come back and see me. Recommended remedy for Avatar induced depression: infinite dose of "get a life" and no less than one dose of "wake the fuck up". |
Fantasy ? Those people feel they are missing something. Even if they don't know what exactly. They saw this movie and felt it. "Avatar" is based on real events :
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The Machine in our Heads--Glenn Parton "This message is the catalyst for an intellectual awakening among the population, accompanied by the feeling that something old and familiar has been uncovered. The power of this message to move an individual is due to the psychological fact that, although repression shuts down deep thinking, tribal ideas continue to push for entrance into consciousness." |
I would bet this isn't something new, more just a news peg. I knew kids who wanted Harry Potter and magic to be so real they could taste it. And of course the franchise only encouraged it by selling products it proclaimed were real magical items. The only magic happened for JK Rowling as she went from being a broke teacher to having more money than Zurich.
If anything, I'm depressed at the sorry state of journalism when reporters get paid to report this crapola. |
The only depression I suffered was in my wallet.., I think I spent like 75 bucks to see that show.
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You must be including a bunch of extras because even the most expensive tickets here in Manhattan, NY where normal tickets are $12.50, IMAX 3D was $18 plus surcharge of $2. |
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See the post above - "Avatar" is not a "fantasy".
I am talking about civilized people going to the savages and never wanting to come back. Not even for their family. Community and freedom, that's what the natives had and people seek. Even if you seek money - you are in fact seeking the freedom money brings. |
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Tell that to these kids, "hey are you unhappy ? just go enlighten yourself !!" . Show them "Avatar" first. The if they feel bad tell them they are stupid.
ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG: Guest Photographer/Photojournalist: G.M.B. Akash ? Child Labor Their life is denied. Avatar is not a fantasy. See the true stories above. It's the same story, set in some future world. It's not an "impossible dream" like that crazy Christian religion "we will go to Heaven and be happy forever..." Christian priest in Congo : Quote:
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