I love VR but hundreds of thousands of people think I hate it
This article was originally published in March of 2016
So, I Tweeted this video a couple weeks ago:
Within 2 minutes I got 14 retweets. I was shocked. 14? Good golly; my record prior to that was something like 8.
Now there’s 5,200 retweets. Plus 330,000 views on YouTube and 5 million views on Imgur. We also made the top post on Reddit for a day.
I really only expected my close circle of Twitter friends to see it. The internet is a fascinating thing.
The story behind the video
Several people asked me what inspired me to film that video. Well — erm — there isn’t really a story.
I honestly just love to capture videos of people in VR(with their consent) because let’s be real: from the outside, we look hilarious in headsets. These videos will be very entertaining to look back on, and our grandchildren will be thankful that Vive cables aren’t holding them back.
I want to capture what it looks like when someone is immersed in another “world”.
Maybe because I’m anticipating that they’ll run into a wall, knock over their coffee mug and/or the cat on their desk. Or maybe I want to document their behaviors and gestures for research purposes. Or maybe I just want to capture this phenomenon so that our grandchildren can swipe through these videos on their augmented Instagrams (InstARgram?) and question our sanity at this stage in humanity.
And for some reason, people really connected with the video I posted.
I’m not dating my coworker
While I was warned to not read the comments that the lovely Internet people left, I couldn’t help but pour a cup of coffee and take a scroll through the forums.
Let’s just say that the coffee should have been a little harder.
With all jokes aside, it’s been oddly fascinating to glean interpretations of the video from thousands of comments. The top reactions I gathered were:
- I am dating the guy in the video and I’m mad that he’s not paying attention to me.
2. There’s no way he can be controlling things with just his hands.
3. He’s watching porn.
4. I have a resting bitch face.
5. Bitch.
6. Our future is doomed.
7. People in headsets look ridiculous to outsiders.
Which one was I going for? #7. But as we all know, things can be interpreted in an infinite amount of ways on the Internet.
And that’s okay, because these comments were more enlightening than anything else because they revealed a concern that many consumers share: VR is going to tear us apart due to its (seemingly) isolating nature.
Are people ready for VR?
Tons of comments were along the lines of “this isn’t the future that I want” or “goodbye girlfriends of the future”. I’m sure most were sarcastic, but I sense that some of them were legitimate concerns or at least signs of uncertainty of VR adoption.
And this was refreshing to hear. I’ve been “immersed”, you could say, in the passion and optimism of VR enthusiasts, so I don’t hear from VR skeptics and non-belieVRs too often.
But as VR creators, it’s incredibly important that we gather perspectives from all sorts of people early on. This includes the people we show VR to, and the people we create VR with. After all, this is a significant part of our future. We should all have some form of input.
While I’m not expecting everyone to happily throw a big ol’ headset on their face, I am concerned that not enough people have tried VR and therefore haven’t had the opportunity to explore its potential. From the outside, VR might look silly and isolating, but you really can’t understand it until you experience it yourself.
“Attempting to describe presence is like attempting to describe concepts such as consciousness or the feeling of love.”
-Jason Jerald, PhD. Quoted from The VR Book.
Why it’s crucial to highlight the potential of VR right now
We don’t know what the killer app for VR is yet. But, that’s okay. It’s important to never stop exploring use cases. One of the best ways to begin this exploration is by welcoming all kinds of expertise into this industry.
Have a VR headset? Go show it to your neighbor, your kids, your grandparents, your doctor, your mailman, your UberPOOL passengers. I might pitch VR to a stranger as: “Oh hey there, are you interested in throwing on this fashionable accessory and peeking into the FUTURE?”
Witness people react to the platform. Ask them what they think about it. A lot of them will have a “wow” reaction for the first time, but how can we step beyond that and tap into their imagination? Do they think VR is useful? Do they already have ideas for industries that could benefit from VR, perhaps ones we have not considered yet?
Don’t have a VR headset? Try searching for VR Meetups or events that are going on in your city. Invite your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and the barista at your local coffee shop.
