Just as war-time innovation accelerated technological advancement, so too did COVID-19 spur on the development of VR collaboration tools and haptic technologies.
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned to love our digital communities, to find happiness in online communication and to finally give videoconferencing platforms the respect they deserved.
Pre-lockdown, technology was widely blamed for raising an antisocial generation. Devices = distraction. Information overload = limited attention spans.
Grumpy middle-aged commentators (and parents alike) lamented how commonly “the young” responded mid-conversation with nothing more than a “hmmm?” – their eyes reluctantly peeling away from their phones, more engaged in TikTok than what was going on around them. “Digital interactions are weakening human interactions,” they cried. But suddenly, technology became the only thing keeping us connected during our enforced social isolation. Older folks who once decried virtual interactions were using the Houseparty app like they were spotty little screenagers. Some even taught out-of-touch millennials how and where to sign up on Twitch, in a dazzling display of reverse mentoring. The virus changed attitudes seemingly overnight and made us finally appreciate the digital communication technology that had been right at our fingertips. Instead of rolling our eyes at every “Can everyone please go on mute,” we were thankful for the opportunity to stay in touch – an opportunity that wouldn’t have existed if COVID-19 had hit a decade earlier or anytime in the pre-digital era. Young folks became grateful (and amused) that granny finally learned how to use FaceTime so they could check in in a more personal way. Fans of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing were thrilled that Oti Mabuse hosted free virtual dance classes from her living room. Millions of parents there also loved Joe Wicks’ virtual PE lessons, keeping their kids entertained and healthy. As 2020 rolled into 2021 and 2022, not everyone wanted to stay home and party with friends over Zoom. The first second they could, young and old alike sprinted out to the nearest pub to toast a post-pandemic world (like a pre-holiday airport breakfast, pints became socially acceptable at 9:00 AM). We still meet up IRL and joke about the time we tried to play “Monopoly” over webcam (turns out there was an online multiplayer version all along). But it’s become an affectionate mocking of digital communication technology, not a frustrated one, because deep down, we are grateful – to Zoom, to Webex, to FaceTime – for seeing us through.
In the wake of this newfound appreciation, innovation in communication technology accelerated. The years after the crisis saw an explosion of virtual reality startups for collaboration and interaction, in the same way that war-time innovation accelerated technological advancement. Just as plastic surgery, mass production of antibiotics and encrypted communication flourished in post-world-war times, post-COVID-19 gave rise to haptic interfaces, in the form of gloves or full bodysuits (like Teslasuit or HaptX textiles) that allow us to feel tactile sensations – not just see and hear – through virtual reality. Developers continue to work on technologies that might allow us one day to sit around the same “Monopoly” board as our siblings in the farthest reaches of the world – high-fiving them when they bankrupt dad, tipping the virtual board over when we inevitably lose. The opportunity of multi-sensory virtual interaction has spurred an overwhelming new frontier. Today we join virtual political rallies from the safety of our homes, without fear of being tear-gassed or arrested. We attend music concerts on wavexr.com – no need to find parking or miss the last train home. When we finally stepped out of our houses post-COVID-19, we brought our newfound love for virtual interaction with us, just in time for multi-sensory virtual interaction to become a very real alternative to IRL interaction. We stepped into a world where humans have realized they could very easily live inside the machine.
