As VR is a rather new concept to most people, it is still unknown how this technology will affect the current and upcoming generations. There are frequent discussions about it and many different aspects are touched. One of the aspects is the social aspect - how will VR affect our social lives? It could possibly make it easier to meet with people in a virtual environment instead of meeting in real-life. This way people would spend more time in their homes than before, and it could also make it easier to have long distance relationships.
Another speculation in that topic is how VR will affect fu- ture relationships - maybe it will become normal to go on virtual dates, or maybe some people will prefer VR relationships and porn instead of a real relationship? In a survey done by the government in Japan, 37.6% of the Japanese people claimed they had no interest in a romantic partner, where it is in Japan become more and more normal to have a virtual relationship with video game characters [17]. VR could hypothetically increase this effect. In the internal survey, 20% of the people answered that they believe they will be using VR for porn in the future. In a widely discussed reddit post from 2015, a divorced man writes about how he prefers VR porn to a relationship. He writes:
How can VR affect our lives?
This post has creates a lot of speculations around how to future generations will develop regarding relationships and human interaction. Could VR really change the future of relationships? In the image below you can see an example of how a virtual date can look like!
”[...] when I’m done, I don’t have to worry about the emotions of another human being. And I don’t have to put my own emotions on the line. There’s nothing at stake.
I feel like I might be okay with never having another relationship again, and using VR as my sole sexual outlet." [18]
Another speculation is that VR might make it easier to work outside of the office. You could put on the headset and be apart of an office meeting as if you were present, as an alternative to teleconference systems. The real estate industry can be changed, where you instead of going to a house viewing, you can view the real estate from your home - which could make it easier for both the seller and the possible buyers. In that topic, shopping for clothes, furniture and other articles could be improved by VR. Just imagine if you could view the furniture you were interested in from IKEA with VR, instead of having to visit the department store!
As discussed in section 4, the industry that might benefit the most from VR is the gaming industry. There are already a lot of people who are addicted to video games and many people are speculating whether VR will make this worse. A Harris Interactive survey from 2007 concluded that 8.5% of the U.S youth in the age of 8-18 were addicted to video games [19]. It can be easy to forget about the world around you when you are playing video games, but it can be even worse with VR since you don’t see the real world around you. A terrible example of this is were a south Korean couple lost their baby to malnutrition after they had been neglecting it to play video games [20]. Let us hope that VR doesn’t provide any more instances like that.
All in all, it can seem that VR can change our lives in the way that we can do more from home, whether it is shopping, working or meeting people. Some people might argue that this can reduce the amount of traffic that we have today, but the future is still to be determined. VR could also have a negative effect within the gaming industry, in the sense that more people can become addicted to gaming and neglect the real world. In the video below, The National is taking a look at the future of virtual reality. The video was published one year ago, and is looking into how virtual reality will be in 2016 and onwards.
An example of what a virtual date could look like [23]
[17] goo.gl/40woqc, [18] goo.gl/PXwmlt, [19] goo.gl/3erc5e, [20]goo.gl/W16Sc1, all accessed 27.11.2016
[23] http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2016/03/vr-social-platform-vtime-comes-to-cardboard/, accessed 2.12.2016
The Nation taking a look at the future of virtual reality