In response to Lauren's post on the future of virtual reality, I would like to say that I think there is no way it is going to end up as the next big thing, and it certainly isn't going to be so pervasive in society that it affects our ability to connect with people. Maybe it's just my bias, but I think that virtual reality technology is a bit overrated. Especially in the case of the Oculus technology; it's just a bit much and seems like it has the potential to be very overstimulating. Although this kind of technology is interesting at first, I think it loses its appeal quickly. It's just not practical. A huge set of goggles like those of Oculus seem cumbersome and inconvenient. So, even though it would be a fun and exciting experience to try once or twice, I don't see it as a lasting technology.
In my experience, virtual reality has been one of those things that is very cool for a only a very short amount of time. For example, you guys remember Runescape, right? At least within my and my brothers' circle of friends, this online virtual reality game was all the craze when I was in elementary school. And then all of a sudden people got bored with it and it died down just like that. I see this same pattern happening with other forms of virtual reality going into the future. I'm not worried at all that we will become glued to our alternate virtual identities while we leave the real world behind--at least not permanently.
No comments:
Post a Comment