>>2336>If technology advances the next few years, it'll be possible for anyone to make a virtual persona, and those funny OC pictures you laughed at will become reality.Technology doesn't need to advance at all for that, it has already been the case for a long time. Online RP has existed for about as long as the internet has. In fact, the creator of Second Life had a vision to create an idealized version of the world you're describing, but then that just ended up largely being used for dumb sex stuff. And then more recently, VR Chat created a resurgence in the popularity of the concept, but then that primarily became known as just a medium for virtual brewing soykaf. I have no doubt that people like what you described exist, but only in edge cases where they're just the type of person who's already inclined to dedicating way too much time to escapism. People like that have always existed and always will exist - technology isn't the cause. If it weren't for modern technology, they'd find some other form of escapism to lose themselves in. If anything, I think that online RP might actually be somewhat beneficial to that type of person - it's a social form of escapism, so at least they're sort of socializing instead of just delving into self-imposed solitary confinement.
>>2341I agree that the fact that facebook only shows you happy stuff is harmful, but for almost the opposite reason that you said. Facebook isn't going to make anyone think that life in general is great. People are intelligent enough to realize that their own life sucks. Instead, it makes people feel like everyone else is living in that happy colorful world, but that they themselves have been cut off from that world somehow. It doesn't make people happy by making them think "life is great," it makes people depressed by making them think "everyone's life is great except mine." At least in the case of VTubers there's an explicit acknowledgement of fakery. They're less harmful since they're presented as fictional characters, so there's no illusions about them being real people.
