VR and social media make the perfect pair
How Social VR will enhance our lives
Hanging out all day at Secret Location, I can’t help but think of ways technology could potentially solve all my problems.
Take my sister’s bridal shower, for example. My family lives on the other side of the country, and because of the distance, I wasn’t able to attend. During the party, I used FaceTime to call my mom so she could hold up the phone and show me what was going on. But seeing the events through a smartphone screen didn’t make me feel closer to my family; it was just another reminder of how physically far apart we really are.
But imagine if I could put on a headset, become an avatar, and be transported to my sister’s bridal shower. I could walk around, sit on the couch, and watch my sister open gifts of Tupperware and lingerie. Via their own headsets, guests at the party could also see me. We could even talk. The experience I’m describing doesn’t exist yet, but there is another option — one that, in a way, feels even more futuristic.
Social VR is the lovechild of social media and virtual reality, and it’s already a thing. In fact, it’s gearing up to be the next big thing.
This time, imagine that the wedding shower is hosted within a virtual space. From anywhere on earth, family and friends use headsets to attend the party as digital avatars. People can speak, move, interact with objects, share photos, stream videos, and hang out together. The environment could be my sister’s house; it could also be the Grand Canyon, the Milky Way, or a completely computer-generated fantasyland where the laws of physics don’t apply.
If Facebook has anything to do with it, Social VR will play a major role in how we digitally engage and interact in the near future. In 2014, Facebook spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus, a company on the cutting-edge of virtual reality. Since Facebook has been the only social network to show a decline in user engagement over the past three years, teaming up with Oculus was a smart move. This month, they demoed their version of Social VR at the Oculus Connect developer conference. Oculus Social (available as a Beta on Samsung Gear VR) is an exciting example of Social VR’s undeniable potential.
Profile pics, comments, and likes will one day be quaint relics of the past.
Once fully realized, Oculus Social promises avatars with responsive facial expressions and hand gestures, GC and photo-real environments, and full interactivity. Since Oculus Rift already comes equipped with Room Scale and Touch technology, users will be able to walk around and meaningfully interact with the environment by picking up and moving objects, playing games, taking photos (with the built-in ability to post directly to Facebook, of course), streaming videos, and more.
But whether or not Social VR will revolutionize social media remains to be seen. It’s easy to compare it to platforms like Second Life (which has its own Social VR project in the works) and The Sims, which thrived off of niche markets in the 2000s. These desktop platforms made waves, but they certainly didn’t appeal to everyone. Even if Social VR turns out to be the best thing since Easy Mac, it’ll take a lot of encouragement for people (especially non-gamers) to cough up hundreds of dollars to buy the necessary hardware.
However, those who are willing to make the investment will not be disappointed. Social VR is still in its infancy, but there are already some pretty awesome options on the market (for starters, check out AltSpace VR, VTime, and Rec Room VR). For those like me who are looking for ways to feel closer and more connected to the people in their lives, Social VR offers a whole new world of potential that may soon turn profile pics, comments, and likes into quaint relics of the past.
I know what I’m hitting Santa up for this year. But the real Christmas miracle might be convincing the rest of my family to do the same.
How do you see social VR fitting into your life? Let us know in the comments.
