Every couple months some idiot will pronounce VR dead on Twitter in a sad attempt at appearing insightful and relevant (by my calculations we're due for another proclamation). These posts inevitably rile a bunch of us XR evangelist up and we jump to defend the new kid on the block from the bully. These bullies feel threatened by the new kid and they're struggling with their impending irrelevance on the playground - we must forgive their ignorance as they cannot see past their insecurities. I want to state a fact for the record, an XR headset WILL become your primary display.
Reason 1: Screen Real Estate
Sure many people want to "decrease screen time", but they're fighting a lost battle. Our screens have become our gateways to communication, commerce, wealth generation, and entertainment. Screen time will continue to be a massive portion of our days for the foreseeable future (until brain computer interfaces which might still have the concept of screens). With cellphones we miniaturized them until they could fit in our pockets, once we got those ergonomics figured out we immediately shifted focus to making the screens as large as possible. The same is true for TV's and desktop monitors. Most of us want 100 inch 8K TVs in our living rooms AND bedrooms. We want 3 monitors for our workstations, but you know what would be better than 3... 4. We want as much screen real estate as possible so we can get more of the things our gateways have to offer us. Its human nature. XR headsets offer you infinite screen real estate. You want a 100 inch curved OLED on the ceiling above your bed - done. You want 8 monitors circling your office chair - no problem. If you want more screen real estate, you want an XR headset.
Reason 2: Control Over Your Environment
A significant portion of Twitter's first decade of existence was spent debating two things: the productivity impact of an office's open floor plan, and whether or not we should be in an office at all. Hell DHH built a career on that debate (and slightly angry blog posts like this one). We all know that in reality, the best environment for productivity is different for everyone. The ultimate productivity hack would be the ability to control every detail of your environment. A bright room, a dark room, a crowded room, a rainy day outside the window, no window at all, a chair on the beach, a chair on the moon, the room you're actually sitting in... but cleaner. An XR headset lets you control every detail of your environment.
Reason 3: Digital Togetherness
At the time of writing, the world is getting a mandatory dosage of digital togetherness due to COVID-19. Zoom video calls have become the dominant way of conducting business meetings. Facetime and Facebook Messenger Rooms have become primary ways of spending time with friends and family. Zoom fatigue became a thing. People have grown tired of staring at and talking to a bunch of heads framed in boxes on the screen. It just isn't a substitute for being in the same room. Multi-user XR applications are making strides toward solving this problem too. I'm working on a solution myself with Couch.Live. It gives you the sense of being in the room with others, and being able to do something together (in Couch Live the something is watch TV but there will be more to do soon). Its a glimpse at how XR headsets will be able to dramatically improve our ability to spend time together digitally.
Reason ♾: Everything Else
There are many more reasons that an XR headset will become your primary display. The reasons listed above are just the most obvious ones. They are the current trends that will undeniably fuel XR's adoption. The only thing holding XR back is the current state of the technology. We need better headset ergonomics, higher resolution displays, and better software - but these things are coming. The Oculus Quest seems to have been XR's iPhone moment, and now we're now just a handful of years away from hardly being able to remember life without an XR headset as our primary display.
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