Before you make a decision to buy a VR headset, it’s important to know what it can do for you. While the benefits are many, it also has some limitations. In this article, you’ll learn about its benefits, limitations, potential for addiction, and how it may affect your human connections. This technology may be the next big thing, but it’s not for everyone.
Benefits
VR is a promising tool that helps people learn in a different way, whether that’s by watching a video or reading a book. It can even reduce pain and improve your gaming experience, as you can move around and interact with objects in a virtual environment.
VR is an exciting new technology that allows you to experience a real-world environment without leaving your home or office. High-end travel, for example, can be simulated through VR. For medical students, it’s an invaluable tool for training. Retailers can also use VR to let prospective customers try on clothes or other objects, enabling them to make a decision based on how well they feel in that setting. VR also helps co-working spaces give prospective tenants a sense of how the space will be like if they move in.
Limitations
Virtual reality is a powerful way to train and improve your skills, but it’s not without its drawbacks. Because the virtual environment does not simulate the real world, users cannot learn and perfect their skills in a virtual environment. For example, they cannot practice an instrument in VR and perform it at a higher level, while in a real world setting, they can modify the instrument’s sound and make adjustments. This is a significant drawback to virtual reality.
While VR can be used to assess leadership potential, it cannot replace the inspiration of inspiring leaders, the wisdom of trusted mentors, and the compelling vision that makes your organization great. As a result, virtual reality cannot replicate the skills and purpose that go into job roles. In addition, employees may not realize what the purpose of their job is, so virtual reality can’t fully simulate the experience. The same limitations apply to other applications of VR.
Addiction potential
The advent of VR has raised questions about its potential for treating addiction. Its use in addiction treatment could improve assessment of craving and active treatment. It may also improve the link between clinicians and patients, thereby increasing understanding of addiction. However, research in this area has been limited by cost and the quality of the multimedia content. The recent democratization of VR technology coincides with an interest in the video game industry. The cost of VR is decreasing, and the availability of real-time VR systems may increase the utility of this technology in ecological assessments.
One of the most important findings of the study is that VR can elicit the same physiological and psychological effects that real-world environments do. People who undergo VR sessions experience more intense pleasure and an increased tendency to become addicted. A previous study concluded that a VR session increased participants’ absolute EEG alpha power in the Fp2-A2 and F8-A2 brain regions, when compared with control groups. This suggests that VR therapy may help people develop new, positive habits more quickly.
Impact on human connections
Research has found that the use of VR reduces the frequency of spikes between neurons in the brain. Place cells are neurons that give the brain navigational information and activity in VR reduces this frequency by 50%. In real-world situations, place cells are active at around 80%. As a result, around 60% of the hippocampal neurons in the brain stop firing during virtual room exploration. These findings suggest that VR negatively impacts human connections and cognition.
Another study reported that VR experiences can enhance social connections. Those in the synchrony condition reported greater social closeness, while participants in the non-synchrony condition felt less socially connected. Both conditions included the same physical stimuli, but researchers were able to manipulate synchrony through covert coding. Another study showed similar results. The researchers concluded that this new technology has the potential to improve social-cognitive therapies.