The current trend shows that Facebook continues to lose its younger social network users while becoming increasingly popular among elderly. The younger consumers under age 24 are switching to newer social platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. This demonstrates the necessity for Facebook to find and create new ways for its younger users to interact and socialize with each other.
In an attempt to persuade its younger users, Facebook has announced its VR massive-multiplayer world called Horizon. This is a virtual reality universe where users can build their own games and environments to play and socialize with friends. Through an AR headset you are able to step into Horizon’s world and designed your own cartoon avatar. You start at a vibrant town square where all people meet and where you can teleport to worlds and experiences built by Facebook. After that you are exposed to endless possibilities of creating your own worlds and activities within Horizon by using World Builder. This can be done without any coding knowledge. For instance, you can built your own movie theater to watch movies with your friends, you can relax on your own built vacation island or you can create a laser tag competition on the moon. All of this while physically staying at your own home.
The real question is: how would such a VR world impact our society? Horizon aims to let users create their own adventures, experience new places and make new social connections with people all over the world. In the first instance this sounds as great effort in making people socially develop. However as Horizon tries to substitute the social interaction in our physical world with its virtual world, it could ultimately lead to the habit of hiding from your real life. People can become addicted to socializing in the virtual world and this can lead to the reversed effect of becoming less sociable in the real world. Next to that, if users are addicted, other physical risks such as nauseous, eye sourness and seizures could occur, when violating the recommended minimum of a 10 minute break that is needed every 30 minutes.
An even bigger concern is that Facebook is able to freely integrate sponsored advertisements and messages into its Horizon world. This could be done by putting up billboards in its virtual world which influences the content that is exposure to its users. When a larger user base is established and infatuated with Horizon’s VR world, it could give Facebook a vast power in what the users see, feel and think.
Do the benefits of a VR world such as Horizon outweigh the possible risks? And how can we ensure that Facebook is not able to manipulate its users? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Sources:
BBC (2019) Facebook to create VR world called Horizon. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49851798
Constine, J. (2019) Facebook announces Horizon, a VR massive multiplayer world. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/25/facebook-horizon/
Fagan, K. (2018) Here’s what happens to your body when you’ve been in virtual reality for too long. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/virtual-reality-vr-side-effects-2018-3?international=true&r=US&IR=T
Oculus (2019) Introduction ‘Facebook Horizon’, a New Social VR World, Coming to Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform 2020. Available at: https://www.oculus.com/blog/introducing-facebook-horizon-a-new-social-vr-world-coming-to-oculus-quest-and-the-rift-platform-in-2020/
Sulleyman, A. (2018) Facebook losing its grip on young people, who are quitting the site in their millions. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-quit-young-people-social-media-snapchat-instagram-emarketer-a8206486.html
Thank you Lina for your interesting post about how digital worlds might influence and impact the real social worlds we’re living in. I believe that the success of such a digital VR-based world depends largely on the pace of development of the VR technology itself. Numerous companies are currently working on improving VR technology, but till now they have not come up with a technology that could match the real world experience and its social benefits.
The launch of initiatives such as Facebook’s Horizon on the other hand, might accelerate VR development due to network effects. Consumers can be tempted to buy a VR headset as they’d like to try Facebook’s Horizon. This increases sales of headsets, which can consequently be invested into development of better VR technologies.
I think that, for now, a platform such as Facebook’s Horizon will be and needs to be a niche product, focusing on children that have special needs. In this case, you can think of hospitalised children, expat children or children with developmental diseases such as autism. Of course, technologies often follow an exponential development curve, which means that at a certain point in time VR technology will be of such high quality, it might offer an equal to real world experience. At that point in time, the VR headset and its platforms such as Facebook’s Horizon, may offer a product for the mainstream market.
Hi Lina,
nice article!
Hi Lina,
Very nice article. Joe Rogan indicated your concerns multiple times: the possibility of VR being so vast and fascinating that (some) humans do not bother to come out into the real world. I’m curious, with you having done research on this, what your view is regarding possible economic impacts. Will we need to have regulation on this matter in order to not create an economic downfall in first world countries?
Would love to hear your opinion!
Kind regards,
Max den Hoed
Hi Line,
Interesting post about the new developments in VR!
The problems you mentioned in the post seem familiar to concerns about video gaming in general in the past.
Gaming on a PlayStation/XBOX was also seen as a way to ‘escape reality’.
It is always an easy scapegoat, as it does not seem to have many advantages from an outside point of view.
I believe, however, that the advantages of new VR worlds like Horizon, outweighs the possible disadvantages.
People who are normally not as good in socialising, may feel more confident using platforms like this.
When it comes to possible ads, I also don’t think the approach from Facebook is something revolutionary.
It is common to have ads scattered around a game when the game is for free.
When people are willing to pay a specific amount, these ads will likely disappear.
From a company perspective, VR also offers many new opportunities.
I previously worked as a salesperson for an outdoor firm where I showed consumers a VR world, in which they could use their new outdoor shoes.
This created a better picture for the customer what they could do with the product, and it was original marketing for the firm.
All in all, I believe the advantages outweigh the existing concerns,
Jeffrey
Hi Lina,
Interesting post about the new developments in VR!
The problems you mentioned in the post seem familiar to concerns about video gaming in general in the past.
Gaming on a PlayStation/XBOX was also seen as a way to ‘escape reality’.
It is always an easy scapegoat, as it does not seem to have many advantages from an outside point of view.
I believe, however, that the advantages of new VR worlds like Horizon, outweighs the possible disadvantages.
People who are normally not as good in socialising, may feel more confident using platforms like this.
When it comes to possible ads, I also don’t think the approach from Facebook is something revolutionary.
It is common to have ads scattered around a game when the game is for free.
When people are willing to pay a specific amount, these ads will likely disappear.
From a company perspective, VR also offers many new opportunities.
I previously worked as a salesperson for an outdoor firm where I showed consumers a VR world, in which they could use their new outdoor shoes.
This created a better picture for the customer what they could do with the product, and it was original marketing for the firm.
All in all, I believe the advantages outweigh the existing concerns,
Jeffrey