Virtual Reality

Ethical Concerns  

i. Escapism and Addiction

Virtual reality offers humanity with a way to escape the hassles and troubles that one might face in the process of going through the routine of everyday life by providing them with an alternative fantasy world. However, individuals can become too immersed in the experience of virtual reality and develop preferences to spend increasing amounts of time in these artificial idealised environments and expose themselves to the risk of addiction to the world of virtual reality. Such addiction to the synthetic virtual world and its sensory, intellectual and personal control options can lead to users withdrawing from interactions in reality and neglecting relationships for imaginary connections with avatars instead. As a result, social withdrawal and other forms of psychological disturbance such as the inability to differentiate between the real and the virtual world are unnecessarily promoted or exacerbated, which can jeopardise the well-being of individuals and cause self-isolation when they no longer use virtual reality as means to enhance the experiences available in the real world but as a platform to substitute physical proximity and real interaction with their community. Consequently, the drive of these individuals to fulfill responsibilities and sustain their commitments is greatly reduced, causing them to sacrifice on forging bonds or doing meaningful work because of their obsession with virtual reality.

 

ii. Violent Content

Virtual reality exposes the user to violent or dehumanising content that can have negative impact on their real world attitudes and behaviours particularly in children who are still in their formative years. At that age, they tend to absorb the information without the capacity to discern right from wrong causing them to be to imbibe the wrong values.

 

The negative effects are especially amplified in virtual reality because of its immersive and interactive features, which differentiate it from the passive viewing experience offered by the television or the cinema.

 

The first issue is that the condoning of disrespectful treatment of virtual characters can cause a similar treatment to human beings in reality especially when the user is unable to assess the true impact of their actions when it is committed in the virtual world.

 

Also, the exposure to virtual violence may result in psychological harm. This is generated because  people begin to feel that a representation of themselves, or things that the value are not treated with respect by others, a perspective which they bring with them into the real world.

 

Another possible negative result of being exposed to virtual violence would be a change in one’s moral judgment, affecting both our intuitions and our rational deliberation. For example although virtual rape is different from real-world rape due to the lack of bodily violation, victims of virtual rape still experience real emotional distress that resembles that of victims of real world rape.

 

Moreover, by being exposed to simulated dangerous situations in virtual reality even if they are non-violent, it might affect our ability to learn from experience what is dangerous for us as it blurs the lines between what is really dangerous and what is supposed to be dangerous but is not due to the existence of the virtual world. For example, if people were to emerge unhurt from seemingly real car crashes, it would undermine the process by which the brain biologically registers what is necessary for our safety and survival.