AR/VR Ethical issues.

As time passes in today’s world, AR and VR technology shows an ever-increasing rise and further involvement with our collective lives. It’s begun to raise questions across a broad spectrum of our society’s main actors, such as the entertainment and educational sectors. Educators all across the globe have started noting that AR/VR can potentially accelerate the learning process of students having trouble with certain topics, and it can make the learning experience much more pleasant and looked forward to in general for students of all ages, as it significantly aids the memory’s retention capacities, according to the American University in the article Virtual Reality in Education: Benefits, Tools, and Resources. The same applies for the entertainment sector; the possibility of almost completely immersing oneself in a simulated world can potentially stimulate and nurture imaginative and creative capacities across all ages, which is very positive when viewed from the perspective of a society that’s constantly demanding more creators of content. Unfortunately, the questions don’t only revolve around its potential benefits, but also around its dangers that gradually begin to become visible, strongly contrasting with the benefits.Some of these potential dangers regard AR/VR’s impacts on mental health; as younger generations become the firsthand receptors of new technologies, they become more isolated from their surroundings and no longer find thrill or entertainment in face-to-face interactions. They become used to the fantastical dimensions of the simulated worlds and, when encountered with the real outside world, they likely face strong feelings of disappointment and a strengthened urge to spend time in virtual worlds, where they’re spared of all discomfort and they can hide behind an avatar of their own creation. According to The Next Web, “They may be desensitized to certain types of violence or interactions, which could damage their social relationships” (referring to avid AR/VR users). As for this last point (regarding the use of avatars), there is a potential risk for harassment, as harassers have shown to take great advantage of anonymity in order to dodge moral and legal consequences. Today’s technological advances make us increasingly more vulnerable to online harassment but, maybe even more concerning, to a violation of privacy. To expand on this idea, here’s a quote from Educause: “While higher education institutions and technology vendors have often struggled with the extent of access to student data, VR, AR, and MR open an entirely new frontier of capturing data related to students’ physical movements and, eventually through biometrics, capturing their emotional states.” In other words, the drastic progress of AR/VR technologies implies that its pioneers must find ways to make experiences increasingly more immersive, precise and responsive to individual movements and stimuli. Eventually, it can lead them to gather information from user experiences, even if they’re unaware. Questions about privacy and security already rise constantly around the widespread use of Cookies in websites and the manipulation of our personal information by large social media companies to create precise and effective advertisements, yet with AR/VR, the challenge meets more concerning dimensions. Is someone, somewhere, studying my movements and reactions to provide smoother gameplay for future generations? Questions like these are arising on a daily basis. Another challenge with AR/VR is accessibility.