Remember Monday: An 85-year-old reports physical recovery after using Second Life and a powerful, untapped use case for the Metaverse platform.
Similar to how an 86-year-old black blues guitarist convinced me that Second Life (and, by extension, all successful metaverse platforms) has maintained its strength as a diverse creative community, the experience of an 85-year-old woman in 2013 convinced me of its importance. I became more confident. A virtual world for seniors:
This is Fran, playing Second Life with the avatar Fran Seranade. She is interesting in her own right, but it is known that many older people like her are active in SL.
Here’s what’s really surprising: For more than seven years, Fran has suffered from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that afflicts millions of people around the world, including actor Michael J. Fox and sports legend Muhammed Ali. In Fran’s case, Parkinson’s disease made it difficult for her to stand up from a sitting position or maintain her balance while standing upright. But now Fran reports that her physical movement has recovered significantly.As a direct result of your activities in Second Life.
How did this happen? According to her, she originally used Second Life as a fun way to socialize, but “(a)after a while I started to identify with my avatar and felt like I was actually doing what she was doing.” One time she played her Tai Chi meditation animation for her own avatar (hers below) and this was her turning point.
She said via email: “Watching her, I could actually feel the movements inside her body as if I was doing her Tai Chi in real life (this is impossible for me).”
Although much more research is needed, this remains one of the most promising aspects of Second Life and virtual worlds. Tom Boellstorff, a professor of anthropology at UC Irvine, and Donna Z. Davis, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Oregon, first presented Fran’s story of recovery and a tantalizing theory about how avatars might help with this change.
“Neither Tom nor I are medical researchers, but we are currently communicating with a number of neuroscientists who are very interested in this research,” Dr. Davis said. “We believe that Fran’s experience may be similar to the findings of other current studies conducted with individuals with brain disorders or injuries. Here, by observing yourself or your avatar, you are essentially retraining your mind to function. Through research into neuroplasticity and the function of mirror neurons, there is evidence that people can ‘rewire’ their minds to restore neural function. This is no different from an exercise that has long been used by athletes who have learned to visualize themselves in competition to make their movements more fluid and precise.”
Read the rest here. I want to tell you the rest of Fran’s story. Creating an important metaverseBut the story of how virtual worlds can better help people like Fran is still ongoing. For all the recent talk about the Metaverse in Silicon Valley, little attention has been paid to the people who could benefit most from it, including the elderly and people with a variety of physical and mental challenges.