Virtual Reality widely known as “VR”, has become a huge success in the world of technology. We can almost see the phenomenon in various platforms, especially in the gaming sector.
With the strong presence of VR in our technology world, now there is one question lingering around our mind: has it affected other sectors to apply the same technology?
This is where the idea of making VR a social platform arose. VR social platforms are named because of the long-awaited collaborations and socialization done virtually.
So, what are VR social platforms? In plain words, a VR social platform enables its users to communicate and work together with the help of virtual reality.
It is said to be the new way to work together and socialize in the future which is planned to be implemented in the next few years or decades.
Although VR social platforms aren’t famous up to now, we can say it is still worth mentioning the phenomenon.
The VR technology implementation to social platforms is going to cause a massive change in how we live our life ahead.
It is truly a breakthrough amidst the never-ending technological developments.
The idea is very simple. If VR is well implemented in gaming and many other sectors, why can’t working together and socializing join this technological development?
Today, we will talk about what VR social platforms are and why they might become the future of how we work remotely and socialize in general.
We will give you a general overview of why VR social platforms are going to be the next format of our next work and social life.
This is worth mentioning so you will know if it’s worth the money and time to invest while learning how to apply the technology in your business, and work systems or socializing either with or without social media.
What is virtual reality or “VR”?
Virtual reality has become one of the most advanced computerized technologies in the last decade. VR Technology helps people to make their imagination come true.
The power of technology brings us into artificial situations or environments that we have never imagined before. VR immersed us inside a real-world simulation.
It makes us feel a truly deep dive into the experience the technology has offered.
When using VR, we are immediately presented with virtual situations or environments where interactive roles are brought forward. Users are immersed in their surroundings.
Virtual environments resemble almost the exact real-life situations. That is why many people who use VR get immediately hooked inside the system as if we live in reality, even though it is not.
Long ago before VR even existed as a name, humans had depicted and created the big picture of VR technology in movies.
Now all of us can view the technology’s presence alive and harnessed by many giant technology companies, and three of them we have known are Facebook (now Meta), Google, and Microsoft.
Humans worship a visual look. Every time we see something immersive, our eyes suddenly look at those objects or creatures. It is a piece of common knowledge among us all and we are not denying it.
In short, virtual reality technology creates a virtual visualization of a 3D world in front of our eyes and we feel like we live inside the virtual world.
Virtual reality and social platforms
The increasing popularity of VR technology application in gaming and entertainment is known globally. Now, the same technology could be applied to all walks of life, including in the working and socializing sector.
Many futurist people see this opportunity to level up the format of how we work and communicate with each other.
We can have a virtual office, virtual appointments, collaborations, shops, cinemas, parks, virtual events. As you are probably aware, almost everything has become virtual over the last couple of years.
Imagine combining all the aspects of any traditional social platforms and VR technology. This would make a huge impact on how we live, work, and socialize for the foreseeable future.
VR social platforms would grow and make their way to dominate and replace all the conventional technology use.
VR social platforms in general offer an advanced and unusual approach to social and work interactions.
Unlike any other traditional social media and work platforms available on the internet VR social platforms are bringing a more fresh and vivid advantage to the table.
While conventional and popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook involve one or two senses for users to fully maximize their user experience, the VR social platform does not follow the same strategy.
As we know, Instagram is a social platform specialized for photos and now has expanded to short videos, so it only involves your vision and hearing sense.
And Twitter is a social platform for people who want to speak out their voice or even ideas through words, so it only involves your visual sense.
Facebook has both of those functions. It is a place for both photos, videos, and words altogether. But the capability for this social platform to involve all five senses for their user experience is still limited to vision and hearing sense.
In the meantime, social platforms based on VR create and deliver a whole new next level of experience in meeting and interacting with other people around the globe.
The VR system tries to involve all of the five senses wherever possible on every traditional social platform.
Could VR social platforms replace social media today?
The main reason why VR social platforms interest is growing rapidly is because of how the Pandemic or COVID-19 has changed the way people communicate and connect.
Working from home may have its charm and superiority compared to conventional working from the office. But we cannot imagine how blatant and lifeless it is to work just by seeing each other’s faces on a screen.
We cannot stand the need for having a real interaction and conversation among coworkers or even just having a light chit-chat when lunchtime arrives.
That is why some people, and maybe including us, remain to choose and stay with the old-conventional way of working from the office.
As we should have known that humans had different types of personalities. Among them that we widely recognize are extroverts and introverts.
Introverts are the type of personality who loves spending their time being alone. Whereas extroverts love spending most of their time hanging around or grouping with people.
The only thing holding out VR social platforms to successfully stand out among other traditional social platforms is the price.
We need the most brand-new and up-to-date technologies in our computers and smartphones. We need attachments (such as having a VR headset) for us to be able to run the systems.
Giant technology companies are racing out to promote the uses and application of VR as a new way of living in the era of the internet.
The bad news is that VR systems still sell too expensive in the market and do not have large user segments. So the full development of VR technology is far from perfect and great.
The growth of how we interact socially with other people around the globe is very diverse from time to time.
We used to meet and hang out in the cafe directly. But when the internet came up, like a big wave in the sea, the shore swept clean.
The same as the way people now interact socially with each other, totally differs.
How the internet changed the course of our life. Reflecting that the medium we use to connect also gradually transitioned.
Don’t forget that as time goes by, the internet connection increases faster and more steadily.
The content we consume in the medium also changes drastically. From the text, photos, and now videos.
At present, VR has held its throne in how we can consume the content. The format is new and next level.
It is futuristic and will be the future of our daily activities. The statement had never been truer since VR entered almost any industry and sector, especially on social platforms for working and socializing.
Conventional social platforms are getting obsolete. We crave something out of the box. Things that move us in a better experience than usual.
To feel like in an adventure where we can explore other things freely without any limitation.
It sets a new milestone in a new era of the internet where people can become anyone anywhere anytime they want to be.
In addition, VR social platforms already present features that would likely be favorites among many other regular and traditional platforms.
It is the ability to create customization from the look of ourselves as participants or friends or workers.
Moreover, we will be able to get into a deeper connection with people up to a personal level. This is going to create a much more immersive interaction and lots of fun just like when you meet someone in real life.
Does the future of VR social platforms look promising?
VR social platforms still have a long road to explore and grow. Even though it is not yet fully recognized, without a doubt it is the future of working and socializing remotely.
It increases our productivity in working and socializing with other people without having to meet face to face.
Two of the biggest technology companies in the world, Oculus and Facebook (now have changed their name to Meta). Have invested a lot of their money and resources, for this promising way to work and socialize in the future.
Oculus with its Infinite Office and Facebook (now Meta) with its Metaverse has blown a breath of fresh air to the future of the world of virtual reality.
Oculus creates the infinite office to make our work as flexible as it could be. They emphasize virtual working space features on their oculus rift. So that anyone who has it can work anywhere at almost anytime just using their head-mounted display.
Metaverse has changed the entire image of how we should adapt to a virtual world as soon as possible.
Mark and teams have introduced us to a whole different social platform, ranging from work, socializing, entertainment, gaming, fitness, education, and commerce.
Metaverse is built in regards to how Mark sees the change in the internet. The progress and shift of how the internet works from generation to generation.
Futurist believes that 2022 will be the year where VR rises and is renowned by many people from around the world. But note that this launch and availability is just in the stage of familiarizing.
It only introduces to people the fact that virtual-kind-of-thing is a promising development technology for the present and the future.
Are social media platforms adapting to VR social platforms?
The most noticeable big technology platforms that seem to be trying to adopt VR technology to their social platforms are Facebook (Meta) and YouTube by Google.
Facebook (Meta)
A year ago Facebook (Meta) has released a social platform that works virtually, they call it Facebook Horizon:
Meta has always been the one (if not the first) who rapidly promotes and introduces us to how the future of working and socializing would differ from the ones we use and live with now.
As Facebook transforms itself into Meta, now they have introduced MetaVerse.
The MetaVerse is just another level of how we collaborate on a project and different levels of interaction with other people.
At least we can say that MetaVerse is the most ambitious social platform ever created in virtual interactive collaboration.
YouTube
YouTube, on the other hand, just adopted the VR system into their videos. But, this of course is limited for people who have a VR head-mounted display.
Nonetheless, YouTube did a great job to bring the immersive video experience into their platform with the cooperation from Oculus company.
Lessons Learned
Meta and YouTube have done what needs to be done to survive in this never-ending technology development. They have shown people that even a big tech company has to adapt to almost every technological advancement situation.
Whether or not it benefits them, cultivating VR into every aspect of our life would be a huge and long-term investment for prospective technology advancement.
There is much more than just the two of those big companies showing up and offering an immersive virtual world experience from VR technology.
Independent and small companies alike are also in a race to promote their creation of virtual social network experience to the public.
Implementing virtual reality in business and work systems
From The Perspective of Business and Working Systems
First of all, you have to know what is the purpose of your business itself. We know that businesses, like it or not, must fully adapt to the newer and up-to-date information technology.
Businesses build and grow from one generation to another generation. The question is, how to make the business stay and survive or even more become stable over the years.
By implementing their work system into the technology used at that time. Long ago people did their work using books and other conventional methods.
There were no computers, smartphones, and most importantly, no internet.
How the internet hugely affects our lives and millions of other people around the world is just incredible. It is, beyond doubt, a massive shift to all walks of life.
From social, education, commerce, working, gaming, and entertainment, we cannot count and name it one by one. We are nearly living like in what Sci-fi movies depicted long ago and now.
Accountants work on their tasks using a book or sheet of paper. Writers use typewriters to write, salesmen come door-to-door manually offering a brand new product or just making a sale for their company. Now it is all 100% upside down.
Accountants work using special accounting software, writers use laptops installed. Salesmen don’t have to come door-to-door again to sell products or services.
The salesmen can just make an appointment meeting with the prospective clients or buyers through email and app messaging such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messengers.
When Is The Right Time to Implement VR Technology?
Okay, so we already know how important it is to implement newer and more advanced technological tools business development.
But the problem does not lie in the implementation, rather in the exact time to implement it in our business.
So many businesses try their best to become the first ones to implement cutting-edge technology systems.
We need to know if our business needs to implement the technology as soon as it is launched and commercially available.
The company must seek their client’s preference and ask for their agreement on whether or not to use a newer and more advanced technology system.
We want to work on our businesses, and for example, hiring a writer for our next project. But then the writer said that he/she only accepts and works on VR social platforms. And no longer accepts clients through traditional social platforms.
Wouldn’t that be a huge loss for them?
However, the story will be different if you, as a writer, have so many clients asking you to work through and apply the use of VR social platforms in everyday tasks.
Maybe it is time for you to step up the game and change the way you work with the clients.
We can step up the game and accept the trend when it is not a trend anymore. When everyone uses it more often. When it is more of a necessity and a habit.
The point is, you have to know what the client wants and their practices about the newer technology development. We need to consider a lot of areas in our business according to the demands.
Business is more than just following a technology trend, but also accommodating the demands, whether it is old or traditional.
The Comfort Zone of Technology Development
Don’t be too early and don’t be too late getting in the technology trend. Try as best as you can to analyze and make a careful and thorough decision when you want to implement the newer technology to the business.
Since we all need time to adapt and learn the technology, consider every benefit and loss when you try to step up the game.
Remember, that many businesses or companies disappear and rise because of the internet and other technological advancements.
You can see big companies dominating their business sector with the right use of the internet and technology, such as Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and Amazon.
Look at how they have changed how we run our businesses in the present. The world no longer is the same as it was 20 years ago, or even more short like 10 years ago.
Nokia’s Defeat on The World of Mobile Phones (A Case for Reminder)
We all can learn from the case of Nokia, where they lost their phone market against Samsung in the Android category and Apple with their iPhone lineup.
For those of you who don’t know about Nokia. Nokia is a giant mobile phone company based in Finland and famous for its phone lineup in the 2000s.
Maybe people or even giant technology companies in the 2000s who wanted to take the market phone didn’t know how to beat Nokia.
As soon as 2010 came, when Android was fully available and commercially used by many people around the world. Samsung gave all of its resources to win this next technological trend and beat Nokia.
2010 and above was the year of smartphones. That time was also the time where Apple with their iPhone dominated the smartphone market along with Samsung.
Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone and presented us with a new approach to using a phone. That is by touching it or what we call now a “touchscreen”. Steve had influenced all people around the world to use a touch-based phone.
And now touchscreen smartphones have replaced the position of traditional phones that use keypads. The man and the legend itself completely changed the face of the phone in the 21st century.
Now both companies with their famous line-up of smartphones (Samsung with its Galaxy Series and Apple with its iPhone series) have become one the most anticipated technologies coming every year.
For your information, note that the Samsung Galaxy series smartphones line-up has supported the use of VR. So, they came up with their own Samsung VR headset called Samsung Gear VR.
As for the iPhone, as far as we can tell, the smartphone also supported VR technology but didn’t come up with its own VR headset.
The advantages of using VR technology in business and workspaces
When it comes to advantages, virtual social platforms offer a variety of benefits for their users.
For instance, when you are working or collaborating with someone else from a different area or region, or even country, you can still feel their presence as if it was in the workplace.
The presence of other people who work with you on VR social platforms feels natural.
Interacting among each worker also feels real, as if you were working in the office, while in truth you work virtually using a VR social platform.
The work you will share for your department and with other departments is also going to look and feel real.
So it will give a sense of realism.
It means that the business result itself is going to develop much more accurately than before. The atmosphere is just real from working together up to sharing your work with anyone else on the platform.
Businesses growing their brand awareness are more easily acceptable and visualized by their consumers.
With an immersive interactive way to enjoy the content. This would likely make more people get interested and try out the products or services, rather than using traditional methods.
Working together is going to be flexible and reliant in the future.
The advantages of using VR technology on social media platforms
While the case for working together is great, the path toward socializing, either using social media or directly (face to face) is also bright and favorable.
After the pandemic or COVID-19 attacked the whole world in early 2020. We are all faced with our greatest weakness, which is not having the chance to socialize at all.
Socializing here means the habit of humans to meet each other in person. Either just to talk, eat, work on a project, learn, play, or any activities which involve two or more people.
The course of how we interact socially with everyone else has been altered very drastically.
We are now using a web conference platform technology such as FaceTime by Apple, Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, or any other app which has the same function, to meet and interact face to face with other people.
In addition, we also use WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Telegram for message exchange to families or relatives who are far from us.
Instagram if you enjoy looking at pictures, YouTube if you enjoy watching videos, and Netflix for watching movies. From work, social, to entertainment, all can be done just sitting from home.
This is where VR technology plays a crucial role in enhancing our socializing experience through the internet. It not only offers vision but offers a presence, a feeling of being there.
The social connection is robust compared using traditional social and working platforms. We would be more psychologically connected to the people. It also would be more beneficial for people who already suffered badly from social distancing.
The chance to feel real interaction and having other people’s real presence is finally in front of our eyes.
There is also a study that shows that VR greatly helped satisfy the cravings of people to socialize during pandemic and lockdowns. It also helped their physical and mental health.
Summary
VR social platforms to every aspect of life still have a long way to go, especially both on work and social life.
All the downside, like very few users of segments, lacks quality content, expensive requirements such as high-end PC and VR headset, and the difficulty in use. VR social platforms have a more of an actual beneficial impact when it truly has been implemented.
That is where the value of this technology comes in, despite all of its flaws in early-stage use and development.
Many said that VR social platforms help in the skyrocketing of their business and double the return of investments when the company utilizes the power of this technology in their marketing.
It reduces company costs to market their products because of how the VR technology features where you can feel something truly exist and is real when it is only virtual.
VR as a social platform has unlimited possibilities ahead.
The format of how we would work and socialize would be more amazing and many many wonderful things would come in the future.
Mixing the VR and traditional social platforms is something we never expected would happen by now and it is going full force in replacing all conventional ways of working and socializing either face to face or through social media.
We are going to live like in the Sci-fi movies sooner or later. We just need to make sure we are all prepared for these next big things.
Conclusion
VR social platforms are evolving rapidly. The technology is finally getting the high interest and attention it deserves.
While people still stay comfortable with the traditional method of working and socializing, VR technology seems to be promising. It is a whole new experience of doing things virtually.
The interactiveness, the richness of VR has gone beyond what our mind could have imagined.
Whatever sectors or fields we might focus on the VR social platforms, could engage and attract more benefits for their users.
What do you think about VR social platforms? Have you used tried them? What do you think will happen next?
We look forward to your comments on this.
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