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We will be exploring Virtual Reality in the future and the impact that it could have on body image and mental health. Within the next 60-70 years VR could become a massive part of everyday life and people could become dependent on it. If people could design 3D avatars of themselves, would they make themselves ‘perfect’ and how would that affect them back in the real world? There could be many issues that come from an individual being able to change what they dislike about themselves, for example, body image issues, mental health problems and even addiction to VR.
In your presentation you looked at how VR would have a negative affect on body image, as I’m sure having an idealised version of yourself would. But what about potential positive affects, such as impaired people being able to see themselves as akin to others; such as people with cancer who have lost their hair having a version of themselves hair they wanted. Or someone who needs a wheel chair seeing themselves standing. I was wondering about if you had looked into this.
We did look into how VR is beginning to be introduced in therapy treatments, interestingly enough the case we looked at was in an anorexia case and had some moderate success.
It is clear that there are positive effects to be had from VR, the things you mentioned are great examples. However one must keep in mind that we can’t stay in our VR bodies and perhaps the mental effects of going back to your “real self” after seeing a version of yourself who could walk or have hair would cause serious detachment from this reality.
It is certainly something to think about though.
With VR being a distinctly different reality would the disconnect between these images not be sufficient to avoid some of the issues related to social media.
You are not editing a picture of your real self to present an idealised version as actual reality, instead creating a wholly alternate virtual version which is inherently not real or bound to you and open to shift and change as required.
Did you consider that perhaps these digital versions would be more akin to clothing, wearing your business avatar to conferences or intergalactic afro disco ball avatar to go clubbing?
This is a good point and is likely what will take place in our nearest future. However, our prediction at least for me also lends itself to a further future where the development of virtual reality spaces leads to much of social media and even online dating occurring in VR spaces in which case our modern “catfish” and “body envy” which is common on today’s social media could simply evolve to fit VR. If the shoe already fits on social media as we know it today and has already developed from the past I don’t see why I wouldn’t develop more so as needed?
While there is a case to be made that people would make their own perfect bodies, there are already examples of people in VR just portraying themselves as characters. This can already be seen in Vtubing where people use virtual avatars to stream mainly on Youtube. Do you believe there are actually enough people who would use VR for a perfect body for your predictions to take place?
Well, this is true, the same can be said for social media today. Many people portray themselves accurately and honestly with no editing etc… but a number of people do not and this leads to confidence issues in those who are honest.
If VR were to become the most popular way to socialise and meet up virtually in the future, as many predict then it is likely the same thing will occur. Many forms of media set largely in VR or in the future already portray a similar reality.
This is a good point. However, I believe that VR will used more and more as an alternative “real” world and the boundaries between “real” reality and VR will become somewhat blurred. So in my opinion future humans won’t creat a lot of characters, instead they will try to design real looking avatars, because the virtual self might even feel like a real body for them, and they will use it for work, meeting with family members etc. But as in social media today, I can see how they use “filters” etc. to look better (but still like themselves). I hope that made sense.
I found this a really interesting topic! Throughout your presentation, there was heavy focus on its effects on women’s body image as this is more often criticised. Do you think that in the future, the issue of mens body image will become even more prevalent? if so, do you think it could become as relevant in the media as women’s?