We live in a very interesting period, as our world is currently being changed significantly, and very rapidly, by the advance of virtual reality into our everyday lives. The Oculus Rift is one of the most popular products in this category, and the device is already enjoying a lot of attention from enthusiasts and the media. However, not everyone seems to be completely positive about it. According to some, it could have some rather worrying implications for the future of some aspects of our lives, such as tourism.
There are various uses for the Oculus Rift and similar devices, and it doesn’t just stop at making gaming a more immersive experience. Users can easily “travel” to various locations around the world, for example – combining this technology with something like Google’s massive database of finely detailed maps of the world, and in a few years, we might not even need to get out of our homes to see everything that the world has to offer.
Is this actually a good thing for tourism though? Not everyone seems to agree. On one hand, it’s certainly great to give people the opportunity to see things they might normally never see otherwise. On the other, it might also make some people too lazy to want to go out of their homes, some predict.
In the end, this could also have financial implications. Some countries around the world pretty much rely on their tourism for their economy. When one could buy an Oculus Rift and explore the world with it, why would they spend the money on an actual vacation? If more people start thinking in this way, this could lead to an actual problem for those nations. In the end, we might have to reevaluate the way we see not only tourism, but virtual reality entertainment as a whole.
This is definitely technology that can be of great use to us if we apply it wisely, but it could also lead to problems in society. It will likely be a very hot topic in the coming months/years, as people will be trying to figure out how to resolve this problem while keeping everyone happy.
The fact that Facebook recently acquired the Oculus Rift has been additionally worrying to some as well, as people don’t seem to have too much trust in the company, given their poor track record of handling the information of their users. It’s not clear if this will have any actual implications for the success of the product, although some have already expressed a desire to look into alternative products by other companies if Facebook will be behind the Oculus Rift. Thankfully, there will likely be plenty of other options soon.