VR; The New World at Our Fingertips---But at What Cost?

The very first day that I gave Virtual Reality a try, it was like marching into something I will be able to control. It became so difficult to differentiate between what was not real and what was real, and for that period of time while navigating through it, I was not myself, because I could just be doing anything, anywhere or could be anyone. That is that the abracadabra behind Virtual Reality.

But as soon as I took off the headset, I began to marvel and a question came to my mind, what if this VR becomes more real than this real life we are in?

Looking at everything, including all the professions and fields, it is very rare not to see VR, Architect use it to visualise drawings as if it was real, medical professionals uses it to instruct and guide surgeon on what to do while operating on a patient without risking lives, most schools uses it to look and visualise what ancient history looks like without having to be there, and it is sometimes used to study smaller plants and examine galaxies. It is a life changing and a great invention.

As someone who is into farming and agriculture, VR has made is very easy for such farmer in a remote village to easily know about how to go about his field in a modern way without having to stress over going far into the city to learn. And for a trauma patient, such person can be healed easily using the VR stimulated environment rather than having to go through real life situations that might be very risky. More than we can ever imagine, VR has brought people together by connecting them with different opportunities, like changing experiences and various skills that might have seem very difficult to attain.

However, even though the benefits that comes with VR is much and there is a higher risk of misusing it because we humans love escaping what is true in a way that we see so much fun in going after escaping the reality of life, so if Virtual Reality becomes a real thing just the way we look at it when the headphone is on, some people might become addictive to it over real life. And over time, too much of VR will make us appreciate the fake experiences that we are visualising over what is real, it can cause weakness to our senses and even reconfigure how our brain work because as times goes on, been addictive to it might distort us from what is really important.

In my culture or let me say generally, being physically present and seeing eyes to eyes, hearing the voices of one another and feeling eachother has always been seen and real connection we all need. But are we still going to know the real importance that is attached with intimacy of having the real presence when having a personal contact is replaced with digital pixels, when physical touch is replaced with VR vibrations. Are we still going to feel that real life presence?

Virtual reality has it bad and good side, just like a two edged sword. The same way it can create opportunities is the same way it can close it if you misuse it. We should not depend solely on this technology but be wise in the way we use it, because no matter how much our reality is imperfect, we should never abandon or try to escape from it totally using VR.

Thank you for reading.

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