Since the Facebook officially announced the acquirement of Oculus, Virtual Reality has became from the novelty gadget for tech fanatics to a considerate consumer product for ordinary people who are more picky. Last year Facebook even rebranded itself as Meta, mark the era of the VR for everyone. Is the Virtual Reality popular now? According to the Advanced Television reports, people in the United States show their strong interests in Virtual Reality technology. Based on the report published by ARRIS Composites, they called more than 1000 people who lives in US ramdomly to survey the use of VR, and 3 in 4 (79%) interviewees are strongly interested in virtual reality. In fact, 1 in 5 (19%) own a virtual reality headset.
Among the VR headset owners, 92% use the headset for gaming, 29% use it for exploring other places, like museums, 25% watch movies and TV shows, 23% use it to exercise. Other uses include making friends in chatting rooms, meditation, flight simulation etc. With the majority respondents 67% using VR headsets more 2 hours or less per week, 22% users said their VR headsets are not comfortable enough for longtime using, while 76% said their VR headsets are comfortable to use. From the specific survey data, we can learn that people are getting more familiar with VR technology and VR is becoming more connected to ordinary life. In this survey, people are excited about the future of the VR technology and they believe VR will become a part of our daily life in the next few years.
Although the Covid 19 outbreak has brought many negative effects, VR technology has been accelerated dramatically due to the epidemic. This is not surprising, as these immersive technologies can help people mitigate the massive disruptions the lockdown or social distancing has brought to their lives. It is the newest way to help people to escape from the disturbing real life, using the technology to relieve stress and have fun. The other group of people who are not familiar with VR technology also show interest in it and 29% of the 1000 subjects said they have a plan to buy their first VR headset in the next year. Ultimately, the world will back to normal, and like the how movie, TV, smartphone, and other innovations did, as it is becoming more and more comfortable and enjoyable, Virtual Reality will help to enrich this world in many aspects.