Several factors shape how people bond with a beloved place, whether it’s a childhood hometown or a vacation spot. Usually those locations are physical ones, but with increasingly realistic digital and online worlds that can be accessed from almost anywhere, virtual spaces can easily keep pace in creating those deep connections.
That’s why some people feel so gratified playing a favorite video game like World of Warcraft, become immersed in Gotham City streetscapes watching a Batman movie, or get caught up in living out an assumed persona in a Second Life online community.
Those concepts reflect an arm of ongoing research by Professor Nick Bowman, who oversees doctoral and master’s programs in mass communications and media studies at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Bowman studies the cognitive, emotional, physical and social demands of interactive media content and how people experience emotional connections to meaningful locations in their lives.