This article goes on a rant about AR and how it will be used for more spying, emotional manipulation, etc that social media has perpetrated. Then defends VR as somehow shielded from these things:
"Most of us don’t have a healthy relationship with technology, and AR as currently thought of, will just exacerbate that. It’s why I really like VR more than AR, because VR is a separate world that you consciously decide to be in for a time."
And yet the author fails to mention that a good chunk of the VR market is dominated by Facebook, one of the very companies doing the things he railed against. Already they force Facebook login with Oculus. So much for your imagined separation of virtual and real life.
Nobody checks constant notifications on their VR headset; few people mindlessly flip through content streams or empty games on it. The fact that VR is so cumbersome means it gravitates towards more intentional experiences. You decide you want to do X, so you set up your headset and do it. I say this as an owner of one myself.
Of course the more the technology improves the less true this becomes. But for now there's a meaningful difference.
The entire Oculus experience is being mined for data. From what you look at to how violent you are in a game to what sites you visit in-app browsers. Your mannerisms. Your voice. Your movement and reflexes.
You think you decide, but you are more impressionable than you think. Your emotions will be exploited in this new medium even more effectively than the rectangular screen, because you will feel embedded in whatever experience they pull you towards. Sure, it's cute gaming experiences now, just as Farmville was 11 years ago, but the nature of Facebook as a company (and the forced FB login means everything is 1:1 traceable with social network identity), means you and everyone else are going to be manipulated in these worlds. And they'll even be able to measure the effect on your social network activity.
It seems weird to state these as dangers of AR, when they're already so completely encompassed by "having a phone and a lack of critical thinking skills".
There's a strong trend of assuming that "new thing" is going to be "existing problem but worse" without much justification - AR isn't exactly going to do anything which isn't already being done. People are already signed up to constant news alerts, and depending which service you pick, that projects a very specific and effective psychological profile.
Like, by far the most common desire I see from people wanting some heralded perfect AR system is the ability to just ad-block real life. Imagine a world where all billboards, bus adverts, bus stop adverts etc. are just being replaced by white squares - where you are not being driven to subtly filter that out every moment of every day. I mean, the whiplash I get now when I don't have uBlock Origin in a web browser is incredible - all that visual noise is genuinely stressful to deal with.
"Most of us don’t have a healthy relationship with technology, and AR as currently thought of, will just exacerbate that. It’s why I really like VR more than AR, because VR is a separate world that you consciously decide to be in for a time."
And yet the author fails to mention that a good chunk of the VR market is dominated by Facebook, one of the very companies doing the things he railed against. Already they force Facebook login with Oculus. So much for your imagined separation of virtual and real life.