It’s not long now until we’re playing God!
As marketers explore the potential of virtual and augmented reality worlds Shae Duncan asks whether enough thought has been given to the ethical aspects of the products, in a post which is part of the LinkedIn Agency Influencer program.
“How many of the things that we have in our lives actually don’t need to be physical?” – Mark Zuckerberg, 2017
When we talk about the future of the marketing landscape, AR and VR are at the forefront of conversation. The future is bright for virtual worlds and with 2020 being only 30 months away, the future will be here before we know it. However with this revolutionary tech and the advertising ops that come with it, the question emerges; when does blurring the lines of reality become unethical and unsafe?
Shae Duncan
I recently cast my eyes over Facebook’s People insights: Shifts for 2020 and the key insight I pulled out of the deck, is the future of advertising is all about visuals in VR headsets and voice commands processed through AI. With a 60% increase predicted in social video alongside the fact that I work for a social agency, it made me start to think about the role that VR and AR will play in our social channels. More importantly it makes me question where will the boundaries lie? How do you justify how far you can go when augmenting someone’s reality. This has the potential to turn into a Shutter Island type scenario if you ask me.
and 3) the propensity of ransomware. Thoughtful piece Shae.
“Download this app, so you can use it once to view this piece in VR/AR.”
It may be an option. But beyond the PR grab, is it worth the investment?
Nothing changes really.
The world will be split into those people who choose “real” reality (affluent, ambitious, educated, socially mobile) from those people that become conditioned to virtual reality (aspirational, indebted, restrained).
The real-reality people will orchestrate the experiences for the rest in much the same way that the privileged few have manipulated the perceptions of the masses for centuries.