How to savor the real world when "Reality is Broken"? (title of book by Jane McGonigal)

In this photography unit, I have been thinking about the experts' advice to seek meaning in the world and to see everyday life with a poet/photographer's eye. I agree that my visual senses were on "red alert" this week to find and photograph a scene with meaning. To tie this into my work life...I currently work with a wide range of high school students for the first 3 periods of the day, then I spend my afternoons with gifted/talented elementary students. The high school students tend to be very jaded and apathetic, especially when compared to the small group of super-excited, highly creative elementary students. I am trying to find doors into my high school English students' worlds so that I can help them to link the required literature/poetry/etc. to you tube videos/songs/etc. I (finally) had a successful English class last week when we analyzed the writing style of the first 3 pages of Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal as well as watching her TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Here's a quote that synthesizes McGonigal's persuasive arguments in the first 3 pages of her well-written book:
"The truth is this: in today's society, computer and video games are fulfilling genuine human needs that the real world is currently unable to satisfy. Games are providing rewards that reality is not. They are teaching and inspiring and engaging us in ways that reality is not. They are bringing us together in ways that reality is not.
And unless something dramatic happens to reverse the resulting exodus, we're fast on our way to becoming a society in which a substantial portion of our population devotes its greatest efforts to playing games, creates its best memories in game environments, and experiences its biggest successes in game worlds." (Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal)

I am still "old school" in my world view. I am unable to devote time and energy to the virtual worlds of games. I don't spend much time on Facebook, exploring the worlds of my friends. I am well satisfied with the beauty and challenges of the real world. I live in outrageously beautiful places in Alaska...Valdez for the school year, McCarthy for the summer season. I have been fortunate enough to travel to some beautiful places on our planet: Belize, Guatemala, Hawaii, France, Greece, Mexico... I hope that this pro-gaming book by McGonigal will help me to better understand the attraction of the virtual worlds for my teenage sons and high school students. Could these teens take cameras outside and find beauty in the world around them rather than spending hours in the worlds of Skyrim or League of Legends? How will our world deal with the gamers' "exodus from reality" in the years to come?