My foray into the Virtual World

For a long time, I ignored the Virtual Reality consumer releases that have been coming through in the past years.

It was only recently when my friend Neil Atkinson bought an Oculus VR Quest 2 that it really came onto my radar. Soon after I got myself a unit, I think Neil took all hard work out of research that goes into committing to a (gaming?) console.

An avid gamer, I gave up my consoles about 5 years ago because I wanted to be more active/ productive as well as just not being that into it any more.

However having tried a personal VR system, outside of being totally blown away by having access to this level of experience at home, I find myself giddy with the possibilities of how this tech can be used.

The games are AMAZING, as you would expect, but its experiences like the Black Lives Matter march filmed by VICE Media on the app Within (VR/AR) that really excite me. Being able to have an immersive first person view of the people on the street, being able to look them in the eye as they express their anguish emotively…. this is really something else. I think this will be a hugely powerful tool when it comes to helping the world empathise with another’s point of view. Off course, access to such an expensive asset remains a hurdle.

The other incredible use case I found was for meditation & visually engaging mindfulness apps such as TRIPP, Inc. where the psychedelic graphics alone are a joy to behold but combined with breathing & relaxation exercises, the experience is second to none in the realm of tech enabled personal experiences.

I am just getting started on my VR journey and I definitely see the risks of a world where it proliferates to an extent where there benefits turn to drawbacks.

However, this is an exciting tool that when used properly has exciting prospects. Saying that, its the last present I would be buying for kids…. let’s keep this for the adults for now ;)