A Brave New World of Images
Recently, I did a virtual reality experience about the Titanic.
It included:
- augmented reality: digital images overlaid over the real world
- virtual reality: a 3D simulation experienced via headset
- an “immersive” experience: 360° projections around a room
Perhaps you know me by now, but I approach these things the way I would an art exhibit.
I am fascinated by the way technology affects us- emotionally, physically, and psychologically. And this Titanic experience reminded me of the all-too-real impact of digital worlds.
Underwater, Yet on Dry Land
Without realizing it, I went into this experience a little bravely.
I forgot that when I was young, I went to an IMAX film that took viewers over Niagara Falls in a barrel. My nine year old self couldn’t handle the rocking motion, and I threw up in the bushes outside the theatre, while my mom held my hair back.
The memory of that early experience bubbled to the surface of my mind during my Titanic experience when I started to feel seasick; despite the fact that my feet were firmly planted on solid ground.
I find this feeling to be very ironic since I do not get seasick on actual boats.
I have lived near water my whole life and have been on boats regularly. The rocking motion has never bothered me. Except, apparently, when I am on dry land.
The Real Effects of Virtual Reality
I didn’t even realize my anxiety during the Titanic experience until I felt something wet on my finger.
I am a (mostly reformed) nail biter, and I hadn’t realized that the habit had resurfaced until I felt a little blood on the side of my pinky finger. I had been too involved in the experience (and trying to repress my feeling of nausea) to realize my hands had been fidgeting nervously.
This reminds me of the ways that people will jump forward or take off running in response to what they are seeing on a screen in front of them, without realizing they are headed for a wall, or about to strike a loved one.
They are too immersed in the virtual world in front of them to be aware of reality.
Logic, values, and awareness can be lost in this split state.
The self-control that I have had towards my nail biting was bypassed. And the habit resurfaced without my conscious awareness of it.
Consequences accumulate, while the simulation plays on.
We like to think of physical and digital worlds as distinct and not overlapping. But they aren’t. They are in fact deeply interconnected, and affected by the other.
The body, mind, and spirit don’t split cleanly between these states.
And this can feel unmooring.
Lingering Effects of a VR Experience
Even after I left the experience and ventured out into broad daylight, I still felt like I was rocking back and forth. It took nearly two hours for my stomach to get rid of the feeling of queasiness.
I don’t do virtual reality experiences often, but the feeling in my stomach reminded me of another lingering feeling that I have after I walk away from technology: a persistent knot in my stomach that I usually get when I spend too much time viewing short-form content, like YouTube shorts or social media.
The anxiety from the videos I watched can follow me around for the rest of the day, even though that virtual world is no longer before my eyes. My reality has, in fact, been augmented by it, even when I am not looking at it. The lingering effects actively color my new present. The hologram persists for a while, even without the technology. I am not sure that my experience has been improved by it, though.
My camera roll is full of photos and videos of me trying to reground myself in the present using the little things: the way my cut eggs are assembled on my plate, the shadow of an insect on curtains, and an impressive trail of carpenter ants. (I have spared all of you these images because they are too “mundane”, but that is their point.)
They help me diffuse the built-up anxiety, and tether me to the wonderful banality of here and now.
Technology Affects Us in Unpredictable Ways
Technology is a lot like art in that it affects each of us differently. And that’s okay- beautiful, even. It shows us we are all human and individual.
Most people were fine submersed in that virtual experience.
But I was deeply affected on a physiological level. And I carried that feeling with me out of that exhibit.
For me, I am grateful that the consequences of my virtually altered state didn’t last. I will be careful though, the next time I venture into virtual waters.
Messy Bun Book Lover
Leave a Reply