Virtual Hangover: Avatar’s Perfect World Is Causing Depression

The spectacular virtual world featured in the hit movie “Avatar” is causing a kind of withdrawal for fans. Moviegoers are becoming so engrossed and enamored by the perfect virtual world of Pandora that depression is setting in when they leave the theater.

CNN reports:

Cameron’s special effects masterpiece is very lifelike, and the 3-D performance capture and CGI effects essentially allow the viewer to enter the alien world of Pandora for the movie’s 2½-hour running time, which only lends to the separation anxiety some individuals experience when they depart the movie theater.

“Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far,” said Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. “It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect.”

CNN: “Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues”