Monday Memory: An 85 Year Old Reports Physical Recovery After Using Second Life - And a Powerful, Untapped Use Case of Metaverse Platforms

Similar to how an 86 year old Black blues guitarist convinced me of Second Life's (and by extension, all successful metaverse platforms) sustained power as a diverse creative community, the experiences of an 85 year old woman back in 2013 further convinced me of the importance of virtual worlds for senior citizens:

This is Fran, who plays Second Life as an avatar named Fran Seranade, and while that’s interesting in itself, many other senior citizens like her are known to be active in SL.

Here is the truly extraordinary thing: For over 7 years, Fran has been afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system afflicting millions around the world, including actor Michael J. Fox and sports legend Muhammed Ali. In Fran’s case, Parkinson’s has made it difficult for her to stand from a sitting position, and maintain her balance while upright. But now Fran reports she’s gained significant recovery of physical movement – as a direct consequence of her activity in Second Life.

How did this happen? According to her, she originally used Second Life just as a fun way to socialize, but “[a]fter awhile I began to identify with my avatar and feel like I was actually doing what she was doing.” On one occasion, she played with some tai chi meditation animations for her avatar (that’s her below), and this was a turning point:

“As I watched her,” as she tells me through e-mail, “I could actually feel the movements within my body as if I were actually doing tai chi in my physical life (which is not possible for me).”

This remains one of the most promising aspects of Second Life and virtual worlds in general, though much more research is needed. Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology at UC Irvine and Donna Z. Davis (PhD), an Assistant Professor at University of Oregon, initially brought the story of Fran's recovery to me, along with a tantalizing theory of how avatars can help this transformation:

“While neither Tom nor I are medical researchers, we are currently communicating with a number of neuroscientists who are very interested in this work,” Dr. Davis tells me. “We believe that Fran's experience may be similar to results in other current research being conducted with individuals with brain disorders or injury where, by watching yourself — or your avatar — you are essentially retraining the mind to function. There is evidence from studies of neuroplasticity and the function of mirror neurons that people may be able to ‘rewire’ the mind to regain neurological function. This is not unlike the long standing practice that athletes have used who have been taught to visualize themselves in competition in order to make their movements more fluid and precise.”

Read the rest here. I tell the rest of Fran's story in Making a Metaverse That Matters, but the story of how virtual worlds may further help people like Fran is still unfolding. In all the recent talk about the Metaverse in Silicon Valley, very little attention has been devoted to the people who stand to benefit from it most, including senior citizens and others with various physical/mental challenges.