Virtual Reality in Times of Disaster

At this point, we should all know the basics of virtual reality. It certainly is an incredible technology that holds a future of possibilities. Virtual Reality can take the average person and put them in places that not many have the opportunity to go, such as the moon. That is exactly what Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook, did the other day. But it wasn’t just the moon that he went to.

A cartoon Zuckerberg, with Facebook’s head of social virtual reality, Rachel Franklin, on a flooded street. ‘One of the things that’s really magical about VR is you can get the feeling you’re really in a place.’

Zuckerberg in the VR Simulation in Puerto Rico. Source: The Guardian

The basic rundown is that Mark Zuckerberg went live with someone else from the company to talk about their new VR project that is making incredible progress. They started up on the roof of Facebook, went to the moon, went to his own living room, and went to Puerto Rico. The place that has been ravaged recently by the hurricanes that have ripped through the area. The place that is dealing with entire devastation and has not had total electricity for weeks now. The CEO of Facebook decided to put their virtual reality system to the test by going to Puerto Rico of all places.

Before I get into the core of my argument here, I will acknowledge that during his broadcast, he did announce Facebook’s partnership with the American Red Cross in their effort to help Puerto Rico including a massive donation going to help those affected. This is great news and something that the island desperately needs. However, I personally feel that there could have been a much better way to go about this. Zuckerberg placed himself right into a place that is possibly still trying to process what has happened. It almost seemed like he was trying to advertise off this great new advancement by putting himself in a place that many people would recognize because of the amount it has been in the news recently. He exploited a place that is torn apart for the sake of advancing and showing off the cool new tech that Facebook has. It was insensible and poorly thought through.

This brings up my point and what I’m curious to see what others think about. Virtual Reality holds limitless potential. It can be used to help put people into the feet of others. It can help to show the empathy that we have talked about in class. In this case however, I do feel that the empathy was missing. I think that it was a misuse of virtual reality, especially with the way Zuckerberg handled it. He just seemed too casual to me and I believe that even while in the Puerto Rico simulation, he high fived the other person. I seemed out of line to me and a lot of people agreed. So much so that Zuckerberg did issue a formal apology about this.

 

So what do you think? Was this type of situation out of line or pushing limits?

 

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/09/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-puerto-rico-virtual-reality

https://www.digitaltrends.com/virtual-reality/facebook-puerto-rico-spaces-zuckerberg/

5 thoughts on “Virtual Reality in Times of Disaster

  1. I believe Mark Zuckerberg meant well in this situation. Yes, he was definitely trying to promote his new advancement, however, I do not think he meant to upset people in the process. I think placing himself in Puerto Rico was a smart move. With the virtual reality, he must have truly been able to see the horrible damage that happened in Puerto Rico. Many people are fortunate enough to never have experienced some kind of this damage and can’t really form ,in their minds, how bad the damage truly is. For example, I know the damage cause is horrible but I think if I used virtual reality and felt as if I was there, I would feel worse for the people living there and feel more inclined to donate money or to help in some other way. I do not think Mark Zuckerberg exploited Puerto Rico. I think virtual reality can be used in many positive ways in the future, and this is just the start of people using virtual reality to do well in the world.

  2. Whether or not Zuckerberg stepped out of line with this is not what I was thinking about when I read the beginning of your post, what I thought about is how virtual reality can be helpful in disaster relief. When I googled that I found that maybe it is not so helpful in relief, but it is very helpful in disaster relief training. Being able to create a very detailed world at a low cost that can be reused over and over again makes training first responders a whole lot easier. It also makes training more effective since trainees can face actual problems in a realistic environment without having to ever put themselves at risk.

    https://tech.co/virtual-reality-help-disasters-2016-11

  3. I think he is almost helping. When people see how bad a situation is they want to help more. In high school I was learning in a class about Syria and my teacher had us do a virtual reality of Syria and it helped everyone in the class see actual parts of Syria and things that could happen. Zuckerberg may have helped people donate more, when people see how bad the situation is in Puerto Rico they will be more encouraged to donate instead of just reading about the situation in the newspaper. Them being able to “walk through” the disaster will help people see what’s going on.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-glimpse-into-the-syrian-refugee-crisis-through-virtual-reality_us_5693f3c4e4b0c8beacf7d766
    http://www.360syria.com/intro

  4. I don’t think this is a big deal at all. I believe this is actually very helpful for a few reasons, Puerto Rico received a $1.5 million donation from Facebook/Zuckerberg, gives the Red Cross data to areas that need the most help (according to the verge) and it allows for more people to truly understand the devastation that took place there. I know many people try to look away at these stories because they are tragic, but with this new view and information it might make more people be more willing to volunteer to help or to donate to the cause. This is as close as it gets to putting yourself in others shoes which is usually what drives people to help. My hope is that Zuckerberg shined a brighter light on the situation and allowing for more help to take place. But I will acknowledge it could have been a little bit of a publicity stunt, but the more people informed on this situation the more willing they are to help.

    https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/9/16450346/zuckerberg-facebook-spaces-puerto-rico-virtual-reality-hurricane

  5. I don’t think this is a big deal at all. He was trying to raise awareness by giving us a real-life view of what had happened. According to the Boston Globe, Mark said in his apology he said, “My goal here was to show how VR can raise awareness and help us see what’s happening in different parts of the world.” This technology has shown what it is capable of and here it showed what people are experiencing right now in Puerto Rico. Sometimes pictures don’t show us what happened, sometimes the only way we can see the true damage is actually being there and with this technology, we were able to. I think that what Mark Zuckerberg did was not right, but it was not totally wrong either. The damage was horrible, and in order for all of us to donate, we need to be able to see what happened as if we were there. I don’t know about other people, but when I just see an advertisement asking me to donate to something, I rarely do it. However, if I saw the damage that had been done through VR technology, I would be able to see the destruction that was caused and would feel more inclined to make a donation. Obviously, pictures and videos show what happened, but with this VR technology, it would give you the best view there Is to see what happened. This is a tough topic because a lot of people think he was wrong for this and I’m sure many people think what he did was fine. He definitely could have done it in a better way, but what he did was fine.

    http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/10/11/mark-zuckerberg-apologizes-for-sending-his-virtual-reality-avatar-hurricane-damaged-puerto-rico/OJ4PwohNPsJDAkh41tqc2L/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter

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