{"id":90801,"date":"2016-05-01T14:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=90801"},"modified":"2016-04-30T07:56:25","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T05:56:25","slug":"how-vr-can-be-an-instrument-for-social-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/90801-how-vr-can-be-an-instrument-for-social-change","title":{"rendered":"How VR can be an instrument for social change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual reality (VR<\/a>) has arrived. It has already been described as \u201crevolutionary<\/a>\u201d and the \u201cnext big thing<\/a>\u201d in technology.<\/p>\n

Its applications extend beyond entertainment and games to include education, art<\/a> and a range<\/a> of other innovative uses.<\/p>\n

But VR also has the potential to promote social change.<\/p>\n

From words to pictures<\/h3>\n

There is a reason we say \u201ca picture is worth a thousand words\u201d. Images can communicate complex ideas and provoke emotions more effectively than descriptions.<\/p>\n

For example, take Aduc Barec\u2019s<\/a> story: she was compelled to leave Sudan in the early 1990s because of the civil war. Her family walked for a month before reaching Ethiopia, where they lived in limbo until they settled in a refugee camp for five years. Aduc and her family were later resettled in Australia.<\/p>\n

When we read her story, and those of other refugees, it is often difficult to imagine and understand their experiences.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another example. Imagine reading for the first time reports from the animal rights group PETA<\/a> (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) about the plight of pigs in factory farms. You would read that, from a young age, piglets are physically mutilated without painkillers, that for most of their lives they are confined indoors in a crowded pen, and that their ultimate fate is the abattoir, where they are stunned and slaughtered.<\/p>\n

For some, the details in these examples are provocative enough. But others may find it difficult to empathise and understand when simply reading the descriptions on their own.<\/p>\n

Perhaps watching a video of the plight of refugees or that of pigs in factory farms may stimulate greater intellectual and emotional reactions?<\/p>\n

Be warned, these videos contain some graphic images.<\/p>\n