Virtual reality by Akinleye Akinwumi Oluwasinaayo  Matric no 230902061 of 300 level Mass communication unilag 

Virtual reality feels like a doorway to another place, one made out of numbers and light, but somehow you can feel it right in your body when you put it on.

When you first put on a VR headset, it almost feels like you’ve just cut a string connecting you to reality. You put on this thing, so sleek, covering your eyes, and poof, your real world is totally gone. That dusty living room, your desk, even that sunbeam with floating specks, they’re just gone, replaced by a dark screen. And then the world sort of hums to life, filled with these tiny pixels, and suddenly you’re in the virtual world.

But what is this place, exactly? Well, it’s anywhere but your current location. Maybe you’re standing on the orange rocks and sand of Mars, or what looks like Mars, and your boots, which aren’t even really boots, are stirring up fake dust, dust no astronaut will ever breathe. Or you’re floating inside a human heart, impossibly massive, inside its chambers, and you can hear the thumping so loud, it seems to shake you. Or you might be standing in front of a huge crowd that isn’t even real, faceless shapes staring back, and your voice echoes like you’re some sort of rock star.

The first cool thing about VR is that it makes you feel like you’ve just teleported to a new place. Your body’s still in that same chair, maybe spinning or shifting, but you, the inside “you”, are off somewhere else entirely.

The second amazing trick of virtual reality is a thing called “agency.” Unlike movies and other media, you’re not just looking at things, you’re interacting with them. You reach out and see a hand, a hand that could be a strange, bird-shaped claw or a ball of light, and you grab things. Maybe you grab a glowing plant and it rings like a bell. Or you grab the steering wheel of a spaceship, and you feel it vibrate in your hand through some fancy technology. The physical rules are new, but you learn them quickly, and the world becomes more real with every interaction. That is the true power of VR, the fact that you’re playing an active role in this new world.

But VR isn’t just about escaping. Like most things, it’s got a lot of contradictions. It connects people in deep ways but can isolate people at the same time. Maybe you’re playing a game or exploring a world with an old friend you haven’t seen in years, and since their avatar mirrors every movement, it feels like you’re actually together. But the irony is that if someone actually is in the room with you, you’re ignoring them because you’re wearing the VR headset, completely sucked in. The closer it brings you to the online world, the further it removes you from reality.

Virtual reality also exposes the limitations of the human mind. It works so well because our brains want to believe it. If everything works well, and your mind is tricked, you surrender to the illusion. That's when the simulation is most convincing and where the illusion feels most real. But the moment something glitches, a bug occurs, a resolution error occurs, a wall doesn’t let you through, etc. then you are instantly reminded again that your mind is immersed in a fairly sophisticated trick.

This is both the risk and the potential of VR. The sheer widespreadness of its use cases is what makes it so special, but also potentially dangerous. The ability to simulate realistic scenarios to simulate rational fear is a great tool for therapists. The ability to create extremely realistic scenarios is beneficial for many. But what about the negative side? What happens when the digital reality becomes more desirable than the physical? Why would anyone come back? 

This is a question philosophers have been debating for decades, but now it becomes real and consequential. Why would you leave the digital world if you could live a more idealistic life than the one you currently lead? This is the ultimate danger.

Virtual reality is ultimately a reflection of mankind. It is a mirror in the sense that it reflects both our desires and our vulnerabilities. While it exposes our limitations, it concurrently showcases our unlimited potential. In that sense, the digital world poses an existential question to humans about the essence of “reality” itself.