Oculus Rift. A gaming device used to make your reality, well, virtual. Oculus Rift is set to be available for retail sometime next year. Along with Oculus Rift, many companies such as Samsung, Google, and Microsoft have new products waiting to throw their products on the shelves.
I do have to admit that I am not much of a gamer. Digital games just tend to bore me more than anything. I don’t know if it is because I cannot control every little aspects of the game, or if I have no idea what I am doing. I am the type of person that would rather make a digital game than play one. So while sitting in my Mass Media and Culture class, the idea of having virtual realities was brought up. It was even mentioned that Facebook would become a virtual reality.
"This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives." -Mark Zuckerberg
OK, what? Yes, Facebook could one day become a virtual reality. Just imagine scuba diving with your best friend in the coral reefs of Australia, or climbing Mount Everest. Just imagine sitting in a room with all your Facebook "friends," what could possibly go wrong? A lot. Let’s start with the fact that virtual reality is not reality. What happened to going to places, meeting up with your friends and experiencing these opportunities in actual reality?
I’m sorry, but I would rather wait to go to Paris with my best friend, and climb the Eiffel Tower then to just wear some obnoxiously large goggles. I want to experience it all. If I saved up enough money to fly 14 hours to France, I want to actually taste the food, put my French skills to the test (seriously I have taken French for three years now!), and last but not least, I want to actually tell people that I went to France.
Virtual reality cannot do that. It will be all fun and games if you are a gamer, but I think we are losing a lot if this is how we are going to communicate. It just won’t be the same, can you imagine having college courses in the next 10 years or so, and it will be “Study Abroad in 50 minutes” and all you do is sit there with goggles on. You are missing the point!
Don’t let this virtual reality become your reality. Go out and experience what the world has to offer. If you want to scuba dive in Australia, go there! If you want to explore the Amazon, please do not see it through goggles, you will miss the most important things.
On a side note, there are these new amusement parks called “The Void” which look pretty awesome!
