Social threats of virtual reality

Virtual reality is being used in gaming and entertainment but also plays an important role in other branches of industry. The beginnings of modern virtual reality reach back to the 1960s, however attempts to preserve and create various experiences can be traced to the prehistoric era. Current setups for virtual reality consist of a headset, controllers and a system for movement tracking. With virtual reality comes a variety of threats such as dissociative disorders, breaches of privacy or the loss of moral compass which all have to be taken into account. Wider population, however, fears many other diverse threats, such as lack of physical activity or inability to establish relationships. This work deals with identifying the most widespread threats and subsequently observes changes in the opinions of people, who undergo an experiment with specifically chosen VR demonstrations that challenge their current perception of the issue. The Blu is a demonstration touching up on the topic of loss of desire to travel and preference of virtual world over reality, the game Beat Saber deals with physical activity in virtual reality and Rec Room makes participants communicate and cooperate. It was discovered that the perception of threats is greatly influenced by experience with virtual reality, the gender of participants, their relationship with videogames and various other factors.