Your first thought when it comes to VR may not exactly be love...

But as with any great new technology, it will eventually find its way into every part of of our lives, including our love lives.

For this special romance filled feature, we wanted to get down and dirty with the inner working of love and VR, with some of its real life uses by speaking with:

Experts from online dating site, eHarmony,

Award winning dating Guru, James Preece

Co-founder of LovInVR, Arnaud Bertrand

VR Singles Event organisers, MayBmore

Why VR and… Romance?

Many may argue that wedging technology between our relationships with people, we’re only putting up more barriers and making it harder to form meaningful relationships.

But whether we like it or not people are going try it out, for good or for bad, and see if it can work. If we said the same about mobile phones 10 years ago, would you of been able to imagine just how much of an impact it has made on relationships?

Date from the comfort of your own home

James Preece believes the lure for modern day users has a lot to do with freeing yourself from the social barriers that people often hide behind, “VR offers users the chance to escape into a fantasy world.”

Imagine being able to not have to overly worry about dressing up, about that nervous smile or who going to pay the bill. It may not be a worry to you, for for some people out there this seems like a godsend. “It gives you the chance to play at being more than you already are.”

For some this may just be able convenience while for others it may be the opportunity for something they just don't usually have a lot of time for.

Arnaud from LovInVR, believes that VR has a lot more advantages over “real world dating”.

Credit: https://www.lovinvr.com/

So are there more advantages to VR dating vs “Real world dating”?

Arnaud explains: “if the VR experience is well done you get a real feeling of presence, so much so that you almost forget you're in VR”

Keeping this in mind and adding it on something as powerful as Virtual reality could offer, you get something really special.

You can do many things that you couldn't realistically do in the physical world.

Arnaud goes on to explain:

“There is no time & space constraints so you can date anyone around the world anytime.”

“You can just teleport from one date to another so as to have multitude of dates in a very short period of time. Or as another example in LovInVR we organise dating games that you can play during your date to get to better know each others.”

Opening doors up that enablers such as video calling just can't match on the immersive scale, VR is quite literally allowing people to ("what feels like") spending time in each others company halfway across the world.

Is VR bringing people closer together or further away?

Speaking to MayBmore, who are currently hosting singles networking events with VR twists, view the medium as a means of further connecting people together.

By looking to create immersive VR experiences they hope to “encourage people to interact in a fun way before deciding whether to take that friendship/relationship offline” similar to the way in which LovInVR to bring one another emotionally closer together.

Instant first dates will bring people much closer together, much faster.

James Preece told us “For the most part, it can bring people much closer together. You'll be able to search for singles near you and have your first date instantly.”

Did you read that? An instant date.

But more importantly he goes on to mention that the technology won't just affect singles looking to find love, it will, and is helping people who already found love.

This is how long distance relationships are benefiting:

“If partners are having a long distance relationship then they'll be able to "meet" and talk instantly.”

And we’re starting to see this shine already with the likes of social VR apps like Altspace VR, Convrge and JanusVR.

For couples that are living large distances apart from each other, this technology, (although rudimentary in comparison to the feeling of a real life touch) is somewhat of a halfway house between being physically there and not.

In some cases this could be a lifeline to some relationships that are finding the distance is taking a toll on them.

Are we in danger of losing touch with real connections?

As James explains “There is of course the downside that some people may choose to purely interact on a virtual level without ever meeting anyone in the real world. The more you use it and the more it improves then the more addictive it can become.”

And that’s a very real possibility too.

If it is so much easier to be the person you want to be through VR, some may find the benefits outweigh the negatives but the scales will have to give at some point as human beings inevitably crave the real physical touch of a companion.

Despite this fear, Arnaud brought forth the argument that “VR is not here to replace meeting someone in the real world but will be a way for you to judge if you want to do so.”

This is what the future has in store for VR and our love lives.

When speaking to eHarmony they informed us of the extensive research they’ve done in the future of relationships and dating, and as such compiled a in-depth report on the area of wearable tech.

Their results were pretty interesting:

It’s strange to think that not too far into the distant future, around 2036 “more than 12 million UK relationships could be created using data from smart appliances and wearable tech.”

Of course this is made up of varying pieces of hardware and software but it’s a clear indication on the impact of technology.

eHarmony says the future could be full-sensory virtual dating

By 2040, eHarmony predicts that we will be equipped with full sensory virtual reality. Covering not just sound and sight, but users will also be able to experience taste, touch and even smell.

This also coincides with what many other industry professionals believe, the notion that VR will be interfaced directly through our brain. A scary yet interesting thought. If this is the direction that VR takes, there is no telling what may happen.

VR may actually be what saves traditional communication?

Credit: https://vtime.net/

James meanwhile took a negative, and pulled it out the other side a positive.

“One of the biggest problems of the digital age is that many people forget to speak and just text or type during the initial getting to know you process. VR will solve this problem as you'll be able to communicate at a much deeper level.”

With the addition on Facebook VR, we may very well see the rise of people talking together as if they were in person across VR. This does not go to say that there's not a way to go for technological advances as Arnaud points out, “as the technology gets better in term of performance, realistic people representation in VR, etc. your VR dates will keep getting more and more realistic.”

One key factor that may decide the fate of first dates in VR, may hang in the balance of realism and accessibility for the general market.

Is the romance dead?

This is our question to you. Is the use of technology bringing us forward or pulling us back? Are we going to be able to understand the true implication of immersive technologies on our romantic relationships or will it be too late before we find out the truth?

Let us know your thoughts and if you want to pose any questions to the people interviewed in this feature feel free to email [email protected]

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