Virtual reality has been often portrayed as a science fiction dream for only the distant future. However, due to new headsets like the Meta Quest coming to market, it has never been easier to put oneself into a brand new reality.

VR serves a multitude of purposes for all of its users. One of its biggest benefits is the ability to meet up with people from all over the world in an immersing world that differs from our own.

“I like being able to meet up with my friends and see when in a different way,” Maize South junior Timothy Core said. ”People can use different avatars. People can express themselves differently. I can put it on and go talk to people that may or may not be comfortable with their looks.”

VR isn’t only used for socializing, it can be used for many purposes such as gaming, watching videos, experiencing real-world places, and working in the comfort of a home. 

“Most often I workout on it, since that’s one of the most fun things I can do single-player-wise,” said Maize South junior Xander Fenoglio. ”If it was more mainstream in my friend group I’d probably play more VRchat though. I like playing VRchat and doing the most random minigame things while also wanting to vomit cause I had the headset on weirdly.”

Popular applications on the headset include Beat Saber, VRchat, Google Earth VR, and even the well-known Minecraft. All of these applications have more than 30,000 downloads on their own. The most popular is Beat Saber with a total of 2 million copies sold.

“If you wanted to, you could look at Google Maps. you could watch VR videos,” Core said.” You could talk with people, play with people, VR chat’s a game, but that pretty much describes it all.”

The ability to experience a new reality with the power of technology is one of the many feats of the 21st Century. It allows anybody with one of these headsets to view the world from an entirely new viewpoint.

“Seeing the world in a different perspective, that was jaw-dropping,” Core said. ”Looking down I may be floating, and there’s probably someone right in front of me explaining what I needed to do. I felt pretty excited.”