It’s Just Like Work, Only Worse
There are a sixteen researchers who recently wrapped up a virtual work week in the Metaverse, spending eight hours a day for five days with a Meta Quest 2 headset strapped to their heads. To make it easier on them they were allowed to work to their own agenda as opposed to having a fully structured work week, and to make it more familiar they set up their virtual environment to mimic a physical keyboard/monitor setup.
The majority of the researchers reported significantly more frustration, anxiety, visual fatigue, motion sickness than a usual work week produces at the end of the study. Those reported symptoms were anecdotal as the design of the study didn’t have set goals to measure but ending the week feeling like you did less than you could have does not speak well to the effectiveness of working in the Metaverse. As well, having VR goggles strapped to their heads for eight hours a day lead to significant eyestrain.
The Meta headsets are still being developed and improved but it sounds like the days of virtual offices are still some ways off.
