Virtual Reality is the hot new technology right now as you can get free gear from Samsung, free holders to put your new Google Pixel in, or drop a thousand dollars or more in the high end products. And with an ecosystem that is best described to be in beta (definitely not alpha phase, hard to say an actual product) as it is not clear how media will best play a role with this medium.
Then there is the issue of VR isolating people where augmented reality simply enhances people’s lives (and what about church VR?).
The Verge recently wrote an article where they looked at how VR impacted the marriage of the author and her husband. Note, this is coming from someone who sees themselves and their spouse as gamers and they are worried about how much it isolates them. Gaming is something that brought them together, but the new tech may actually undo that.
Further, we are in the infancy of VR so this could simply be growing pains with how technology works, but you simply cannot dismiss these concerns.
This Should Begin A Conversation
Hear me out, I’m all for making advancements in the technology world, so I am not pushing for people to fear this. But this kind of reporting definitely needs to be a red flag for Christians as they better understand marriage, parenting, evangelism, and discipleship.
Seems strange for me to say that as I push and advocate for a better understanding and position of promoting digital evangelism and discipleship.
So I would like for this to be a discussion starter. I have limited experience with VR and certainly my wife who is not a tech enthusiast or gamer has had none, so the impact may be more minimal at this point.
Eric Dye says
This is a great conversation and I think it’s framed well. It isn’t about whether or not the tech is good or evil, but about how we should approach it in a healthy way. I myself am cautiously optimistic about it.