Blog By: Janessa White

The rise of the internet didn’t originate from search engines, news sites or web browsing. In a time where dialup connection and computers were expensive, mass adoption of the World Wide Web was predominantly motivated by forms of social engagement: chat rooms and email.  People were rushing to get online to interact with one another.

Virtual reality right now faces a similar predicament the internet did in its early days: how do you get people to adopt to a new medium? As history has proven, it won’t be through games, films or other forms of entertainment. Until we can incorporate social media and social engagement into the VR space, this industry may remain a bit obsolete on a mass scale.

Geek.com recently published an article ,‘The Dream of Virtual Reality is Dead for Now,’ throwing quite the gut punch to the VR industry. The article’s author, Will Greenwald, states that until higher quality headsets are more affordable, the industry won’t prevail. What he’s missing in his argument is that companies like Oculus predict it will take five or more years for mainstream adoption of VR. Sony, Samsung, Google and other players in the VR industry are all taking similar approaches: they’re in it for the long haul.

How do you turn a singular experience as stark as putting a VR headset on into a communal or socially engaging activity? Harvard professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski has spent years studying user behavior on social media platforms. What has he concluded? It’s all about pictures, voyeurism and cloaked engagement. Users spend hours online looking at funny photos, gawking at the lives of their friends or acquaintances, getting furious over the latest political debate recap and messaging with friends and family.

How can VR take from Piskorski’s learnings? Perhaps the future of VR is chatrooms like AltspaceVR , where your avatar engages other avatars? Maybe Skype will transform into a virtual arena? Or maybe we’re looking in the wrong place and AR will trump VR by a long haul and we’ll someday wine and dine with holographs of our favorite mythical creatures as teased out by Magic Leap?

If virtual reality is to make the splash we all hope it will, it has to find ways to connect us as humans. Through stories, social media platforms or other forms of human engagement we may find the key to unlocking mainstream VR.

About the Author:

Janessa Nichole White is the founder of the virtual reality blog VR Dribble. She is a Creative Partner in the Boise-based endeavor Boise Virtual Reality Project.  She is currently developing several VR stories and is working to establish herself as a 360° film creator.

Shoot her a line: jw@vrdribble.com or @janessanwhite

Blog by: Micah Blumberg

Micah is a freelance writer with Virtual Reality Media Associates

Ela Darling has been called the modern Erin Brockovich  for her legal activism, but she seems to be just as brilliant as an entrepreneur as Joy Mangano who was recently played by Jennifer Lawrence in the 2015 film called “Joy.”

Women in VR
Darling is a proud member of the “Women in VR” foundation (a video interview is at the bottom of the page). She is also a humanitarian who speaks out about treating other people ethically and with respect. She has called for the tech industry to be more welcoming of all people, but especially people who are traditionally underrepresented in the tech industry, particularly women, people with diverse backgrounds, and transpeople.

Darling is a woman’s rights activist who is excited to encourage and help more women to join the tech industry, to find their niche, and to be successful wherever they apply themselves.
So Women in VR?
Well according to Darling, tech is a traditionally male dominated industry, and she hopes to change that by encouraging people who are not well represented to come in, join, stand up, and be counted. What Darling see’s in “Women in VR” is a place where she can lend her voice, where women like her can lend their voices, to uplift those who are grossly underrepresented, to create a more welcoming Virtual Reality industry, and to help encourage a stronger future for all people who use Virtual Reality.

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