Understanding the Virtual Reality

VIRTUAL REALITY
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Virtual Reality
The increased adoption of virtual reality (VR) calls for a better understanding of its latent effect on end-users, whether positive or negative. Virtual reality creates physical sensations, which in turn heighten realism in an otherwise virtual world. This increased realism yields a sensation known as a “presence” that represents real use experiences of a real-world setting through computer-generated audio and visual displays. As this novel technology is increasingly gaining traction today, there have been concerns over its negative impacts on the users. Much of existing literature from industry and academia have explored the positive side, but it is argued here that understanding the negative impact of any emerging technology is equally invaluable. Major benefits linked to the use of VR include relaxation of moods, spatial presence of users, and flow. However, research now indicates that excessive use of the technology can have undesirable physiological impacts, including but not limited to dizziness and eye fatigue (Olmos-Raya et al., 2018, p. 2045). In addition, it has been observed that VR can result in increased negative emotions caused by elevated absorption levels, especially during gameplay. Understanding both the benefits and dangers of virtual reality technology is important in examining its future approval.
The VR-generated environment allows for both mind and body relaxation among users. In addition, technology enhances an individual’s social abilities. For example, in their study, Serrano and colleagues (2013; Cited by Chun-Chia, Kuo-Lun, and Chia-Chen, 2020, p. 251) concluded that besides relaxing users’ minds, such environments facilitate the shaping of their social abilities. This has been one of the major factors that have accelerated the widespread adoption of the technology. Tech giants such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have been banking on selling their VR technology in the market. Relaxation can be described as a state at which people experience reduced stress levels. Notably, relaxation has often been a critical drive to leisure activities among music consumers, online gamers, and people who love watching movies. According to Pizzoli and colleagues (2019, p. 479), relaxation helps people become immersed in their activities. It helps increase pleasure in people’s engagements. Thus, users playing a VR game can experience ultimate pleasure because of a relaxed mind. Such virtual environments (VEs) have generally been characterized by relaxing narratives that help induce control over the user’s body and physiological reactions. By engaging users in VR refereed activities, the technology empowers them to regulate their feelings. Users are generally put in the VE created through the technology as contrasted from to simply following a narrative. This active involvement helps in soothing both the body and mind.
VR technology creates feelings of spatial presence whereby users are tricked into imagining that they have been carried to a whole new environment. For exam...