Social Anxiety in Virtual Reality / myLot

United States

May 21, 2016 2:50pm CST

I was playing around with the Oculus Rift last night and discovered a virtual chat room. As soon as I entered the room, I heard voices. These were the voices of people from all over the world who are enjoying virtual reality. There were different avatar characters all over and as soon as I materialized into the room, people surrounded me to say hello. I kept looking around and they were all around me. Because it was virtual reality it felt like real life so my natural instinct kicked in and I got really shy. lol I started clicking around randomly so I could escape the room and I ended up teleporting myself to the other side of the room. I heard one of the people in the room say, "okay....." I felt embarrassed for acting like a kid but I don't do well in new situations that are sprung up on me like that. Any fellow introverts will understand. I clicked what I thought was the exit button and ended up in another room. In this room, all the people were in one corner and were talking amongst themselves. It kind of creeped me out so I frantically searched for another exit. Alt+F4 to the rescue! lol I closed out, took off the virtual reality helmet, and welcomed my peaceful, lonely apartment. lol

5 people like this

4 responses

Alexis

@lexinonomous (511)

• Riverside, California

21 May 16

This is interesting to think about, but it doesn't surprise me. I suffer from social anxiety in real life. A lot of my interactions are fairly short because I can't stand being in new environments. I just freeze up and assume that no one in the room likes me. It doesn't surprise me that someone can experience social anxiety through virtual reality. As different as virtual reality is, we still have real people participating. These real people are capable of saying anything they could say to you in person. That's probably where the anxiety kicks in. Although the reality is virtual, we are still actively participating in something with others. If anything, I think virtual reality would give me more anxiety because their actions are beyond my control.

1 person likes this

Jessica

@missjessicadawn (3286)

• United States

21 May 16

I was surprised at my reaction. Virtual reality is extremely realistic though so my brain was automatically reacting as though I were really in that situation. I played a vr game where I was in the back of a truck, driving down the road, and it actually made me carsick even though I wasn't moving in real life. It's pretty intense.

1 person likes this

Alexis

@lexinonomous (511)

• Riverside, California

21 May 16

@missjessicadawn Which VR are you using? I am going to sound incredibly stupid, but I'm not really familiar with virtual reality. The only virtual reality I am familiar with is through Steam- which I heard is pretty unsuccessful. I've been wanting to give it a try, but I have a feeling my reaction would be very similar.

1 person likes this

Jessica

@missjessicadawn (3286)

• United States

21 May 16

@lexinonomous I got the Oculus Rift and I love it. I've played some of the steam vr games and most of them aren't doing too bad. There are some great games on the Oculus site though. :-)