Thread: A discourse on Vicarious Living

The idea of vicarious living is an intriguing one per se, the notion that one "lives" or "experiences" life indirectly through another agent. That one, by just examining or listening, achieves an emotional response that the direct agent relates or shows.
My inquiry of the philosophical nature of vicarious living regards the ethical attributes and moral dimension that extend from it.
This interests me because up until recently I was what you may call addicted to the vicarious life style. I woke up, ate and maybe read a scientific journal or the paper, and then proceeded to play a video game for around 7-8 hours a day. This disrupted my guitar playing, athletic goals, and other such pursuits of mine; the only thing that would break this cycle would be work, but over the weekends, it is how I lived for the last 3 years.
I think the reason why I enjoyed this video game so much was the escape it provided, the ability for me to engage in a different persona; I literally felt and was received in a whole different way. Essentially an intense vicarious experience. I was the person on the computer screen, in all of him/her's intricacies and attributes. And my reputation on the game was very good, so sometimes I was even worshiped or praised....
In another case I would like to examine I have my roommate who is really into watching TV shows. He has an inventory in the triple digits, and is interested in spending most of his day watching these shows.. day and night. My roommate happens to be slightly shorter than a normal male should be, a little over weight in addition to that, and lacks developed social skills that would compensate or at least alleviate his statistics. So he is left living a highly intense vicarious life style, perhaps close to the same level as I was, but a little higher probably.
Regardless, let me explain my general thoughts on the idea and life style. First, my presuppositions.
1. Life lived vicariously is not as desired as life lived directly (through no other substitute or agent)
2. Vicarious living is only done so when no other satisfactory medium of direct experience exists, in other words.. a last resort.
Therefore, I conclusively think that vicarious living is essentially an escapist form reality that snowballs to the loss or lack thereof self identity. With the loss of self identity, you inherit the loss of self esteem, goals related to the self, self interest, self passion, and any other extension that comes from one's own consciousness.
To me this sounds like an extremely dangerous way to live. It would naturally leave one feeling defeated, forlorn, and highly vulnerable. Having said this, relating to my position when I was at my climax of video game addiction, in a lot of ways that was true. Once I went back to work I felt awkward, unwillingly to participate, depressed, and just out of sync. When I look at my roommate now a days I don't know how he feels, nor do I feel like it's my place to ask him.

So to wrap this up, my question to you fellows is your opinions of the vicarious life style. Perhaps you yourself are in this condition, or at least know someone who is. Concerning your opinions, would you say the vicarious life style is, as I would say, dangerous, and perhaps not a permanent answer to a unsatisfactory life. So I guess my opinion is that it is a destructive coping mechanism that leads to alienation and many other maladapted states of mind. What would be your thoughts? The ethical, moral aspects even.
Sorry if this is poorly worded, or too long to read. I did my best to keep it somewhat concise.

I decided I wanted to further specify my question/concern:

Given the choice of living a period of the day vicariously or directly, is there a "better" choice.