New Technology Assignment

In regards to social media, new technology is something exciting to think about. Whether it is a new app, platform, or actual physical technology that is invented, there is no question whether or not social media and technology will evolve together. As I was researching, I came across an interesting new social technology that I have actually interacted with before! What is it? Virtual reality. When I first hear the term virtual reality, I think of some far-fetched idea that will never come to fruition. Because let’s be real…the mainstream media has pretty much made this idea seem like it came from space.

Virtual reality is a concept that is sometimes hard to grasp. According to this site, virtual reality is “... a computer technology that replicates an environment, real or imagined, and simulates a user's physical presence and environment in a way that allows the user to interact with it.” It’s a pretty cool idea and I think it might be the up and coming ‘IT’ social media technology of the coming years. I think Facebook is catching my drift because guess what they did in 2014? They acquired a company called Oculus VR. This is a fairly new virtual reality company that produces and sells virtual reality games, software, and consoles. After acquiring this new technology, Facebook then implemented 360 video into Facebook... and it is cool as crap. I remember sitting at my kitchen table when my brother-in-law was watching a 360 video on his phone. It was the first time I had even heard about it. He let me watch a video of a snowboarder on the top of a mountain and it was insane. I didn’t even have to touch the screen… I could move and see my surroundings by just tilting and rotating the phone. And the view and quality was crazy good. Thanks to Facebook Newsroom we get a little glimpse of what this looks like:

Although this virtual reality technology has been around for a little while and it isn't brand spanking new, I think it is going to bring new and exciting things to the social media table. Imagine if snapchat all of the sudden had the feature of 360 video? I would be addicted. Or what if a new social app came out that strictly dealt with virtual reality and it went viral? The social media scene would look totally different. Who knows, in a few years’ time there could be some type of new virtual social reality that we can’t even comprehend at the moment. We’ll just have to wait and see. 

 http://observer.com/2016/01/5-big-changes-coming-to-social-media-in-2016/

 http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/09/introducing-360-video-on-facebook/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality