The Problem with Facebook and Virtual Reality

Excellent insight here from Ben Thompson: VR is a deliberate and all-consuming activity, making Facebook's Oculus acquisition puzzling, as Facebook's strength is mindless and casual usage .

Thompson goes on to say that Mark Zuckerberg doesn't understand the strength of his own company; he desperately wants Facebook to be a platform – an immersive experience that consumes your life – rather than what it is: A thing you do for a few minutes at a time in between other, more important things.

I mean, sure, people will get sucked into social media binges for hours at a time but nobody INTENDS to do that. It's procrastination. Whenever anybody opens the Facebook app (or Instagram, or Twitter), they INTEND to do it just a minute or two.

Zuckerberg doesn't understand his own company. I suspect Sheryl Sandberg might be running the whole shebang. This could result in a crisis for Facebook pretty soon.

Thompson says Apple is poised to do better with VR and augmented reality than Facebook/Oculus is. I add Google as well; they're another company that people use interstitially, but Google, unlike Facebook, understands that about itself.

#VR #AR #Facebook #SocialMedia #virtualreality #augmentedreality #Oculus #technology