A recent Sunday New York Times came with a free Google Cardboard virtual reality headset. The NYT also released a free iPhone and Android app that allows you to use that headset to get inside some of the stories the paper is covering. The app, called NYT VR works pretty well even if you don’t have the headset.

I donned the headset and fired up the app and, while I applaud the paper for investing in and experimenting with this new media, my response was mixed.

Google Cardboard is an inexpensive virtual reality headset that is, literally, made mostly of cardboard along with plastic lenses. It contains a slot where you can insert your smartphone, which is where you actually run the VR app. It’s a clever idea because it makes consuming virtual reality extremely inexpensive for anyone with a compatible iPhone or Android device.

Before I describe the app, let me admit that I am viewing this entire virtual reality world with a bit of skepticism. I’m not saying it might not be the next big thing — some very smart people are betting billions that it will be. But equally smart people bet on 3-D TVs several years ago while consumers pretty much yawned.

Having said that, I don’t bet against interesting technology like VR because one never knows for sure how well something will do until it’s out there. My skepticism is based, in part, on several concerns, including whether people will want to bother with VR headsets once the novelty wears off and whether some of the negative effects, like nausea from being immersed in the action, will turn too many people away.

My sense is that VR will have its niches, including gaming (a big niche), training, real estate tours and other business and educational uses.

Still, I do think everyone should try VR because — regardless of whether the excitement may wear off eventually — it is very exciting the first time you experience it. Depending on the content you’re watching, it literally immerses you into a multidimensional world. I have taken virtual tours of palaces and enjoyed being able to look up at the ceiling, down at the floor and all around, just as if I was there in person.

The New York Times is attempting something far more ambitious than taking us on a tour of a palace or a dive under the sea. It’s telling stories based on some pretty compelling videos such as “The Displaced,” that tells the anguishing story of some of the 30 million children who have been driven from their homes by war.

As I watched that and other VR movies, I did appreciate being able to look around and feel as if I were closer to the scene, but I also felt that I missed a lot because I was never sure exactly where to look. In a traditional professional video, the director takes great pains to focus your attention on what he or she considers to be important. But in a 360-degree virtual experience, it’s up to the viewer to know where to look. For example, one of the New York Times videos showed a plane dropping food for residents of an encampment in South Sudan but — the first time I watched the video — I missed seeing the plane drop its load because I wasn’t looking in the right place.

I did see two VR videos last week that I thoroughly enjoyed. One short clip featured a very cute baby reaching out and seemingly almost touching my cheek. The other featured me and a couple of colleagues goofing around in my dining room. These weren’t professional productions using camera rigs that cost tens of thousands of dollars as is typically the case for VR films. It was done using a prototype of the LucidCam, a handheld VR camera that is currently available for pre-order on Indiegogo for $299. Han Jin, CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Lucid VR, made these videos using what, next year, will be this small handheld camera. And it only took him a couple of minutes to render them so I could view them on the Oculus headset he had with him or on Google Cardboard.

I’m not sure where VR is going and whether it will take off, but I’m glad companies like Google and the New York Times are making the experience accessible and that LucidCam will enable the rest of us to create our own VR videos.

Contact Larry Magid at larry@larrymagid.com. Listen for his technology chats on KCBS (AM 740 and FM 106.9) weekdays at 3:50 p.m.