AKIRA

In the new age of technology, people have found more ways to have fun and be anti-social, if you will. I am one of the many lucky people who have had the luxury of doing both with the help of the Oculus Quest 2, released in Oct. 2020.

One day at was at my uncle’s home in Long Island, when I noticed the white headset snugged firmly on my cousin’s head. I immediately ogled it and asked to play. My cousin, Kyla, finished her round of Beat Saber, which is now my absolute favorite, and handed the VR over. I strapped it to my head while she slipped the two controllers into my hands. It was weird and fascinating at the same time. I couldn’t hear anything regardless of the fact that there was nothing covering my ears.

I gazed around the virtual reality. It was a sunset with a couch and outdoor living room set that gives me prehistoric dinosaur views. Through a series of clicks, I landed on Beat Saber, a rhythm game that plays music and you slash through the floating boxes as they come to you.

I immediately felt nostalgia. The game reminded me of Guitar Hero, both similar in their own ways. Note: You have to pay for music packs if you want any music worth dancing to. Needless to say, I played this game for a while before passing it off to my younger cousin. Now that I had the bug for the VR world, I knew I had to have it for myself, with my birthday racing around the corner, I asked my Godmother to buy it for me. A week later, it was in the mail and at my doorstep. It’s been a month since then and I’ve played it almost every day since.

If the games don’t hook you on the Quest, watching movies and YouTube videos will. The videos are large and it’s completely dark like you’re in a real movie theatre. Every angle you look you are either surrounded by 360 videos or complete blackness if you choose to watch a movie. The sound is so loud that you won’t hear anything other than what you play. You can adjust the screen to as small or as large as you choose. It’s like heaven on earth. As much as I love VR, it does pose a question of mental stability. If you’ve ever watched Black Mirror, you understand where I’m going with this, if you haven’t, follow me.

As you’re immersed in this world, it is easy to spend hours in it. I know that’s cliche, but what felt like 30 minutes was really an hour of playing games and watching videos. I think there is a line between reality and imagination, VR has intertwined the two to the point where it can be detrimental if people aren’t cautious of how to tread that line. This game has the ability like many others to make people more anti-social. Of course, not everyone who puts on the white box will turn into a vegetable and struggle to communicate with the outside world but it can increase those chances twofold.

This post isn’t to encourage or discourage anyone from pursuing the VR world, but please make sure you don’t let it consume your life and remember that the real world can be just as beautiful as the fake one.