Media such as virtual realities give the feeling of immersion due to the fact that the user is able to engage in these worlds by their own means. A great example of this is experiencing virtual realities with a VR headset. VR headsets give the user a first-person perspective of the world that they’re set in, and they’re able to look around as though they’re the ones that have been transported within it—they have to physically turn their heads and their bodies to get a 360-degree view of the world. The controllers that they use allow the user to mimic hand motions such as gripping and swinging, which further enhances the experience and immersion.
Outside of using a VR headset to immerse oneself in virtual realities, I do believe that using snapshots and videos can be immersing for some people. As I have stated, immersing someone into media that they’re consuming means being able to elicit emotions out of them, and give them a sense of like they are part of that media. Graphic novels do this well, as they use art to convey character emotions and actions that people reading can relate to; in turn, they can also become attached to that same character. If something were to happen to that character, or if that character were to do something, that could cause someone to react in accordance with it. That person becomes immersed with the media, as well as the character they pay attention to the most.
My experiences with immersion come very easy to me, as I am someone who becomes attached to certain characters, as well as be someone who can become immersed in media that I engage with (granted I am also a bit more sensitive than others, so I feel emotions towards characters a bit more than the average person perhaps). I often find myself role-playing silently in my head when I play games such as Skyrim (which even has its own virtual reality version to really immerse the player into the game), or Baldur’s Gate 3, which are categorized as role-playing games, which encourages the player to create their own characteristics of the character they play, as well as make their own choices that affect gameplay and story.
When a piece of media becomes immersive to someone, it means that media is not only engaging, but it is something that the person has connected with in a way that elicits emotions, as well as a sense of feeling like they’re part of the media they’re experiencing. It gives that person that they’re physically in that world the media is presenting.