Hello to you,

I would like to add some thoughts to what you've written.

If I want to have a completely safe space filled only with like-minded people, I will find myself in an echo chamber that constantly confirms my own thoughts and expressions, but shields me from the world that supports me in maturing. Conflicts are opportunities to learn from them. Creating a conflict-free and frictionless space supports the avoidance mechanisms to engage with people. It is the contrast that the unpleasant, spontaneous, unsafe offers to the pleasant, predictable and safe that enables me to recognise where I stand. What I can still learn and what I have learned. An environment that does not question me, that does not offer me irritating, surprising and unpleasant moments (what you call trolls), that does not exist, not even in VR. Fortunately, I would like to think, ... would you agree?

The constant mutual confirmation of one's own "being right" or "being good"; for me personally it creates the impression of loneliness in the long run, because I lack the depth and curiosity to pursue questions in a deeper way. For me personally, an avatar and a virtual meetup are no substitute for meeting people where I have to rely on their facial and body expressions to be able to judge what resonance I have with someone.

I find it infinitely more tedious to find out through written language or audio how much and whether I want to spend time with someone. So I can understand when you say that you prefer to meet friends, it is easier to meet them because you have already assessed them.

However, for me a friend is someone who is able to say uncomfortable things to me and who knows that I won't immediately terminate our friendship because of it.

You are in any case in a world that technologically supports introversion, but you probably notice that for extroverted characters the fear of living increasingly in an isolated environment due to recent events and restrictions on human interaction is just as much a companion as vice versa.

It is to be hoped that both social situations, which tend to be perceived as frightening, still leave enough room for everyone's needs.

For me personally, my own tendency to spend a lot of time in VR (I include blogging and commenting) is seen by myself as somewhat critical, so I try to get my hands on real life encounters and activities which put me to the ground of where I live and can have a direct and immediate effect, perceived as fulfilling. I question my virtual activities and see them as a rather difficult evasion where I may delude myself into thinking I am making friends of significance even though I have never met anyone in person that I got to know in virtual space. For me, this is a deficit and I see a dependency in it that is self-aggrandising because it is like the carrot on the stick in front of the donkey. I promise myself a sense of well-being and yet I never really achieve this state, only supposedly.

Apart from anything else, if I have the intention of doing business and taking it forward, such meetings would be an opportunity for me to promote my business and find a market place for it where my offer is met with interest. If I want to do business, I have to make friends and make myself known. I think we all know that relationships are the source par excellence for getting ahead in business life. But we also know that business friends are not necessarily the ones who will be there when I am insecure, sick or in a slump.

By now, you certainly realize that I have an ambivalent relationship towards VR :)

Greetings to you.