Immersive Illness?

Lamont: What have been some of the challenges and advantages to using virtual reality as a platform for education?

A challenge that concerns me the most is lurking on the horizon, one we don't yet understand the full scope of. As Immersive Education and other forms of personal virtual reality become more realistic and compelling we're going to see "immersive illness" become more common and more difficult to deal with. Although this is an issue today we're somewhat protected by the limitations of today's personal computers and game consoles (they just aren't powerful enough...yet), but in another decade or more it'll be a different story altogether. Nobody knows exactly what impact insanely realistic, media-rich virtual reality will have on society. We're already dealing with early forms of immersive illness, such as addiction, alienation, mental schisms, and more, but today it's not a problem that affects a large percentage of users. We don't see massive problems today for a number of reasons, including rather low-quality virtual environments and limitations on how much time we spend in these environments. But what happens when the visual and audio quality becomes indistinguishable from reality, the technology becomes truly mainstream, and a substantial portion of education takes place in such environments and not in a real classroom? With massive power comes massive problems. Last week I was asked how big this problem will be, and I responded that nobody knows for sure but I'd estimate that the at-risk population can be calculate by adding the percentage of people with addiction problems to the percentage of society that suffer some form of mental illness. That's a big chunk of society. Is it all gloom and doom? Certainly not, but it's a grand challenge we're not even remotely prepared for today. As with other disruptions society will eventually adapt, but I think we're in for a very rough ride.(http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html)
Yes, I definitely believe that there should be a great concern about what will be like after all these great technology and Immersive Education. It is all great to not be able to go to school because the class will be on immersive world? No, we did not go to school to become genius in math, english or science. We learn about morality, socialization, interaction, love, friendship, and all different kind of things with teachers and classmates.  What about work place? work meetings in immersive world? Yes it is cheaper and easier method but there is a definite difference in talking in reality or immersive world. 

The world will be much more convenient but there will be no need for human workforce soon or later. I feel like human will feel useless if the immersive worlds and robots are doing all work for us. And human will have mental illness after being in an immersive world for everyday. Even with internets, facebook, and social networks, people get addicted to them, unable to function their normal life, and become mentally ill. 

Human comes before technology. Life is not all about technology. Thus, this concern should be considered deeply.