By Sumaiya
Reports suggest that Metaverse and VR technology are not meant to be part of the healthcare industry.
The future’s metaverse poses a risk. The harm that such VR technology inflicts on people’s health in real-time is another aspect. At the moment, immersive glasses are required to fully immerse users in virtual and augmented reality, maximizing their utilization of these VR technologies.
There are a lot of users who have already signed in to the metaverse who are reporting injuries, from minor fractures to more serious ones. The Wall Street Journal claims that virtual reality is causing more people to visit emergency departments. In a digital world, it’s simple to lose track of your physical boundaries, which might lead to accidents. Virtual reality is being used for gaming and exercise, the Wall Street Journal reports, leading to broken bones, dislocated shoulders, and unintentional collisions with onlookers. According to an article in Futurism, a 31-year-old German man broke his neck while engaging in virtual reality gaming. He also sustained a traumatic fracture from the repetitive motion of the game.
A safety document with grids labeled as player-safe limitations is typically included with the VR technology that most tech companies manufacture. While that would be useful, perhaps additional specialized solutions are required to minimize VR accidents, especially given the growth of metaverse platforms and the projected 70% increase in sales of virtual reality headsets in 2021.
And while focusing in particular on the metaverse, a virtual reality environment distinguished by a three-dimensional, multi-sensory experience (as compared to the current two-dimensional internet text and images on flat screens). Some experts claim that experiences on Roblox and games like Fortnite are the closest we have to the metaverse right now.
How might the dangers in the metaverse be increased? Existing hazards in the metaverse could be aggravated in a variety of ways. First, there are potential risks of unwelcome contact in a more intrusive multimodal environment, depending on how these digital places are controlled. These days, the only ways that people can get in touch with us on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc. if they don’t know us or aren’t someone we want to interact with are through text messages, images, emojis, and friend requests. However, consider the possibility of an undesired person being able to enter a person’s virtual area and “become close” to that person there in the metaverse. This could result in undesirable behavior if there aren’t strong procedures in place to report, stop, and respond to this in real time. Given that many businesses are striving to include touch as an extra feeling in immersive reality, the risks that damages in the metaverse will feel more “real” with VR technology are not implausible.
Addiction is the main issue that the metaverse has. Social media and the internet are highly addictive. Information is consumed by us at an alarmingly rapid rate. Every time you look through your social media account, you start to want something more. Every article, image, or another piece of content that you find interesting gives your brain a modest dopamine boost. The main justification for why people spend so much time on social media is this. Social networking sites and freemium games have been shown to employ psychological studies to increase screen time, according to a 2019 IJERPH study. The “ultimate expression of social technology,” in Mark Zuckerberg’s words, might become a hazardous addiction. According to a 2018 study in the American Journal of Educational Research, social isolation was more common among heavy internet users. The potential of the metaverse suggests that it might make this ailment worse.
But because the metaverse represents a significant advancement in the way we communicate, it is not wholly unhealthy. One-stop virtual worlds have long been a common topic in science fiction. This will eventually become a reality thanks to recent technological breakthroughs. The advantages of the metaverse are similarly overwhelming, even though the usage of this VR technology does offer some troubling issues. The metaverse would tremendously assist medical research and treatment in addition to overcoming geographical restrictions. VR technology has shown to be a useful technique for treating PTSD and a variety of phobias. The metaverse would offer a powerful setting for the treatment of such mental illnesses. Millions of people would have access to effective virtual therapy as a result.
Another industry that would greatly benefit from the metaverse is education. Imagine being able to tour the International Space Station virtually or travel to Mars without ever leaving your recliner.
