VR Social Media: Is it the Future of Social Interaction?

When social media came onto the scene in the 2000s, nobody expected it to grow into what it is today. In fact, many years from now, people will look back at this era as the age of social media. Social media is no longer a place where people come to chat or hangout. It has become the battleground for businesses across industries to compete for customers and market share. While all this increased activity has influenced our daily lives, this poses an interesting question: what does the future hold for social media?

The answer is social VR. Let’s get a definition of this term and find out what it offers users that makes it so exciting.

What is Social VR?

Today, VR influences pretty much all industries and walks of life, including interactions between people on social media. Previously, with traditional social media, users would log in and post something online for their friends to engage with. This is the old method of doing things. Now imagine if this process becomes much more immersive. After all, immersion in the content is one of the biggest selling points of VR.

This is precisely what a VR social network offers users. It gives them the freedom to interact with each other in all sorts of ways. For example, let’s compare and contrast the gaming experience on old social medial vs. Social VR. On traditional social media, you would be limited to whatever chat options Facebook or any other platform provides you. In a virtual social network, gamers can create their avatars, put on a headset and walk around in the game environment that can also be customized by the users themselves. This way, they are able to connect on a much more personal level, and the games become much more fun. This is just one example of how VR solutions are connecting people all over the world and offering them experiences that have not been possible before.

Which Social Media Platforms Will this Effect?

Virtual reality social media has already influenced the following platforms:

• Facebook – Earlier Facebook launched its VR application, called Facebook 360. Even during the early days after the release, Facebook claimed that more than 25 million photos have already been uploaded into the platform in the new 360 formats.
• VRChat – This is believed by many to be the most popular of the VR social games. The game can be downloaded absolutely free from Steam and supports a wide range of devices such as the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive.
• Snapchat – One of the reasons that users love Snapchat is because it offers a wide array of unique shows. Now, thanks to VR, users will be able to steps inside the shows themselves and explore their favorite scenes.
• YouTube – If you enjoy watching regular videos on YouTube, then you will love it in virtual reality. In fact, YouTube already offers a VR app on the Android Marketplace, and it is available on Oculus Go.

The Future of Social VR

Nowadays, a lot of people are accessing social media via smartphones and tablets, but in the future, this will be done via a VR helmet. This has a lot to offer people because it can take a lot of the activities that require physical presence and transfer it to VR. For example, let’s take a look at meetings. In the future, you will not have to appear at a meeting physically but rather conduct it virtually. This saves a lot of time, and you will feel like everybody is in the same room, even though you might be spread out over many continents.

Social virtual reality will connect people both professionally and personally. So you will no longer have to send someone a business email, but rather send them a VR powered message that can deliver everything that you need to say in a way that regular messaging is not capable of. For day-to-day interactions between people, we will be able to get to know each other on a much more personal level and enjoy a more immersive experience overall.

Since VR is becoming so popular, expect to start seeing more platforms offering VR enabled products. The entire experience is about to become much more personal and engaging, and it is giving users a lot more freedom to decide how they would like to portray themselves to others online. More importantly, the original goal of social media was to connect people around the world, and the new virtual social life will definitely get this goal accomplished. Therefore, be on the lookout for new VR platforms and start embracing them in both your business and personal lives to be better prepared for what the future has in store.