Experience on Demand

power of presence is not good only for cheap thrills—as I will show throughout the book, the psychological effects of VR can be profound and long-lasting. Study after study has shown the experiences that people have in VR have an impact on them. Their behaviors can change, and these changes don’t disappear right away. This leads to a conclusion that captures the considerable promise and perils of the medium. VR feels real, and its effects on us resemble the effects of real experiences. Consequently, a VR experience is often better understood not as a media experience, but as an actual experience, with the attendant results for our behavior.

VR is an experience generator. Because it is a digital medium, anything we can imagine seeing or hearing can be easily generated in a VR environment. (The other senses are more complicated.) This opens up some inspiring possibilities about the kinds of experiences we might want to have, and how those experiences can make us, and the world, a better place. On the other hand, if we choose to experience unhealthy environments and experiences, we can expect unhealthy results.

the two-dimensional flatness of the image, but by the framing of shots, the unnatural camera movements, the cuts and other editing tricks, and perhaps most importantly, the unusual perspectives created by the camera placement. These all violate the rules by which we normally encounter the world with our senses

or right, the virtual world is still there.

VR technology is designed to make itself disappear. When we watch a video on a screen, we have constant reminders of the artificiality of the experience. Film media are distinguished not only