In Sherry Turkle’s amazing book, Alone Together, she tells the story of a man named Adam.

Adam has the goal of becoming either a songwriter or a screenwriter, but at the time Turkle meets him, he is just trying to make ends meet so that he can work on his passion projects.

There’s a problem, though.

Adam is not feeling productive or validated in anything he is doing in his real life.

As a release, he turns to two online games, and slowly, his online reality becomes far more pleasurable and rewarding than his real life.

In playing Civilization, for example, Adam is a ruler, a monarch. He can save “people.” He can earn loyalty from his subjects. Heck, he can save the world. Adam is finding himself playing these games for 15-hour-long stretches. When he stops playing he gets depressed almost immediately. (more…)