Fernweh in the Immersive World

Of Clicks and Elsewhere

I love this German word - Fernweh - which describes a kind of "itchy feet" for distant places, a desire to leave the familiar but also the painful sensation of not being able to satisfy what could be happening elsewhere. The exact opposite of homesickness, in a way.

This Fernweh is an integral part of the experience one can have in more immersive worlds. In video games, anyone who has played Zelda has surely wanted to reach the end of an accessible map or attempt to traverse the maps.

The etymology of this word is important for emerging digital worlds (and social networks); Fernweh was born out of a desire to break rigidities and established orders, or to quote Goethe's character Mignon in the novella "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" in 1795: wishing to go to the "Land wo die Zitronen blühen," "the land where the lemons bloom."

However, this is the challenge online: to provide both forms of rules of the game (the actions the user can take, the frameworks, the limits...) and define rights (creation tools, areas where the user is not moderated...). This subtle balance probably explains why less aesthetically beautiful universes like Roblox (or even Reddit) generate incredible participation compared to universes like Decentraland. What matters is primarily what happens in people's minds, not so much what happens on the screen.

This desire to "break" spaces is found in all social networks: features like the famous Facebook "poke" gave rise to new ways to interact with our friends, even to launch compulsive challenges. Friction that gives substance to a digital space.

It's no wonder that the "Wonder of Street View" site is also popular these days; the promise is simple: find yourself in the middle of one of the hundreds of Google Street View images. And finally find yourself in the midst of the distant.

Word of the day: superfan

61% of young people born from 1995 onwards describe themselves as "super fans" or "really big fans" of someone or something, according to Google. The consequence: the explosion of professional super fans who develop content for enthusiasts while creating an economy around it. Influence is far from finished reinventing itself.

Impressive links

kev

shared with me a fundamental article by Anu Atluru to understand the new generation of social networks and applications. At the heart of her reflection: building rituals, not just habits. 5 criteria: a ritual is intentionally participatory; it is emotionally meaningful (i.e., nostalgic, funny...); it is regular; it is precisely delimited.

Far from being anecdotal, Aya Nakamura, on Yann Barthès' Quotidien show, exclaimed, "it's the liveliness," explaining the freedom she feels after getting her driver's license.

The expression is used to express a state of bliss while being grounded in something accessible (being behind the wheel of a car). Since then, the expression has started to appear more frequently on Twitter...

"At last! Freedom! I don't know how I managed before to take Ubers, but now I'm in my car, I have my own places, I do what I want (...) I play the music I want, it's so good, it's the liveliness!

Aya Nakamura

...see you soon!

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