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Comment by keiferski | Hacker News Reader

Is anyone else bothered that the cutting edge of consumer tech seems to be focused entirely on escaping the real world, not making it better?

As an example, consider how we treat it as totally normal that the big companies are focused on VR, gaming, and other individual activities that require you to shut off the world and focus on their devices. This is just…to be expected. And the idea of an Apple device that brings you together with other people in real life is somehow entirely inconceivable. I mean that literally - I’m not sure what it would even begin to look like, because the concept goes against our model of consumer tech so much.

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The most popular VR platform at the moment is VRChat, which is almost exclusively about getting together with people and hanging out. In this case, the application removes barriers to interpersonal connection (physical distance, body image-related self-consciousness, disability, etc.).

For the ways in which VR and other technologies separate people, it's because the people building that technology (an exclusive club, to be sure) make certain assumptions about what it's good for. Their primary goal is to siphon money and attention out of users, and the idea of preferring to using such technology to connect with people over in-person socializing and networking is anathema to them. So that's where we're at. Those people have to make space (or not be so filthy rich that they take up all the space) for the people who actually want to use this tech for deepening real-world experiences and meaning rather than dislocating from them.

It would be a battle, obviously. Think of all of the virtual things stood up during the pandemic, that people made meaningful connections through, that our oh-so-extraverted elite dismantled the moment mask mandates ended. That was a conscious decision.

I don't think chatting to someone in a VR program is equivalent to interpersonal connection. And I say that as someone who spent a good part of my childhood playing Everquest.

It's not reality, no matter how much people seem to think it is. VR is better described as ER: ersatz reality.

You're entitled to your opinion. However, it's misguided, if not completely wrong. Many of the aspects of in-person interaction that help to build interpersonal connections are present in body-tracked, voiced virtual reality MMOs. There is a categorical difference in embodied presence when comparing something like Everquest and VRChat.

You're overfitting the reality of what's available in VR to your preconceived notions of its inadequacy as a medium for casual or friendly interaction. Basically, you're indulging in your own little bit of escapism. I think that if you see problems on the horizon, it would be best to view what's happening in the space rationally and with clear eyes.

Uh, no? I simply don’t think interacting with people in a digital space is equivalent to interacting with them in real life, and probably never will be. Human beings are physical creatures embodied in the world.

Like I said, you're entitled to this opinion - even though it's wrong, for the reasons I explained above. Just because you state

>interacting with people in a digital space is equivalent to interacting with them in real life, and probably never will be

doesn't make it true.

i believe the term is 'para-social'

We are coming to an inflection point where people will realise tech is not serving them and there will be a large pull back.

There is already something in the water with the realisation of what social media does to people, how unhealthy online communities like reddit are, how much emotional manipulation there is in news and entertainment etc.

Cutting edge tech is great, it's the late stage capitalism and the attention economy that has soured the meal.

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