What Can Virtual Reality Do That Books Can't?

Upon watching “Crossing the Line: Untold Stories of Refugees”, I was particularly drawn to the story of two women who had come to America to seek asylum from the rampant gang violence in Mexico; but when night fell at the border, they told by a border agent to go to Mexican immigration that night and come back the next day. After fruitless pleading, they returned to Mexican immigration. The people there called the two women a taxi which, they discovered upon boarding, was affiliated with The Gulf Cartel. That same night the two women were kidnapped. One recalls being held hostage for 18 days. She has been held in an immigration detention for over a year and her case is still pending.

Something I have heard this year more than ever is students claiming they don’t enjoy reading because they can’t form pictures in their heads. That the words aren’t enough. I think virtual reality is a sufficient response to this growing mentality. Especially in “Crossing the Line”, hearing a story directly from the source’s mouth and seeing it illustrated all around you eliminates the need for excess imagination or brain power. It is a somewhat sad ideation, but if someone truly can’t enjoy literature due to the inability to imagine, then virtual reality might be a feasible solution.

VR response

Sitting in the Makerspace in class on Monday, I wondered what it was like to actually live your entire life in the situation these people are in. Then, I realized what I was wearing. I was safe inside a well-funded school, wearing a virtual reality headset, connected to my iPhone, with Bose headphones plugged in, wearing my properly fitting clothes, after just finishing a hearty lunch. Not only that, but most of these things I usually take for granted because I've become so accustomed to having them in my life.

While VR does a good job actually portraying what is happening in these individuals lives, we are unable to even come close to understand how it feels. While wearing the goggles, we are immersed in a war-torn, impoverished, under-fed culture whereas most of us have never had to worry about our next meal. We are only able to sympathize for these people and will never be able to empathize.

Open Doors

In virtual reality immersion there were different kids who described how the war affected their lives. The kids were no older than 12 and by the filmmakers showing the surroundings of these kids environment, led me to sympathize even more for them.  The story that spoke out to me was the nine year old boy from South Sudan. His village was attacked and he fled to the swamps with his grandmother. What shocked me was when the boy said he would rather be killed by a crocodile then by the fighters. These kids are facing problems that children should not go through. I believe that some of the more privileged people need to help these families and support them in every way possible.

Virtual Reality and Relating to the Lives of Others

I feel that the virtual reality immersion was useful in being able to connect with the migrants. We
were able to see their lives as what they would actually experience; the footage was real and not
from a work of fiction.

However, I do believe that while virtual reality can help us better understand the experiences of
others, it will not yield a complete understanding. The glimpses of these people's lives were just
that: glimpses. The actual experience, and the emotional turmoil, can not be expressed through
any form of media. We can see how others feel more clearly with virtual reality, but for me at least,
simply watching was not enough. These people have left their homes behind, and have risked their
lives in doing so. Even if for a moment, we could understand how these people felt, it would not be
a constant factor of our lives, so it is difficult to understand the magnitude of what the migrants are
going through.

I do believe that it was a new way to experience the lives of other, and one that is worthwhile. It
allowed me to see these people, real people, as if I was in the same room as them, which was a
very powerful experience. I did value getting to use the virtual reality sets for its unique ability to
provide perspective differently than a film or novel.

Virtual Reality: A Step Through Another Door

Virtual reality provides an opportunity to experience a life that someone else lives. The 360 degree view of the videos was amazing as it allowed me to feel as though I was surrounded and actually living in the setting. However, I think that virtual reality can only go so far as to show what someone’s life is really like. While it seems as though we are engaged in what is happening on the screen, it does not mean that we are actually there experiencing what is actually happening. Some things in the 360 degree view of the migrant experiences would be hard to empathize with fully because we would not have truly gone through the same thing because it’s virtual. For example, the planes in the video that was 11 minutes and 49 seconds an experience that I could definitely sympathize with, but it’s never happened to me so I cannot empathize. Therefore, virtual reality experiences provide an opportunity to be informed about what is happening in other people’s lives, but does not provide the full experience because it is still virtual.

Virtual Reality is the Cure to the Ignorance Phenomenon

It seems as if technology's role in connecting strangers around the globe continues to grow exponentially with each passing moment. Technology has its downfalls, that argument is valid. But at the same time, without it we would remain all too ignorant to the world occurring around us.

A notable technique used in the book Exit West is the switch from one part of the world to the next, then transitioning back without a beat. The best example is the Italian woman walking towards the riot at the zoo regarding immigrants, and then the point of view switching back to Saeed and Nadia, who are reading about the riot while in Mykonos (109-111). These constant shifts remind the reader that the world extends so much farther than where they live, at times it almost feels infinite.

This is the response the VR experience evoked in me. It's one thing to read about the Global Migration Crisis in the news, or to see pictures in the media. It felt like another thing entirely to get as up close and personal to it as I could. Being on boats, in schools, in the remains of cities, right alongside the children it affects the most (such as in the video "The Displaced") is an experience every non-immigrant should strive to have. No one should even speak on the issue of immigration unless they are able to understand the situation to the best of their ability. It's like telling a blind person to simply open their eyes and see.

A characteristic most lack is to attain as high a level of sympathy as possible before forming a strong opinion. Our bubble of life needs to be popped sooner rather than later. I believe something like the VR simulations could greatly change this phenomenon of ignorance.

VR Experience

After watching the first VR video, I truly realized how much many of us do not know what is going on in the rest of the world. I especially felt the realness of it all because it was a VR experience. Becoming immersed in their world opened my eyes to many problems that make ours look more bleak. I could not help but empathize with the children who lost almost everything they had from their families to their homes and view how they keep carrying on with their lives. The video also makes me appreciate my life and all that I have in it because it could always be worse.

We Are All Migrants Through Time

We are all agents of change: socially, economically, politically, and spiritually. Sometimes, these changes force us to migrate. We are all migrants. Sometimes, we as individuals are not agents of change, because of our privileged race, religion, or socioeconomic status, we are not forced to migrate. We are all still migrants. According to Hamid, these individuals are still migrants because if one was to remain detached and unvarying from an ever-changing, fluid social environment, they have become socially indifferent; they are a migrant.

The virtual reality experience enabled me to have an introspective view of my social, economic, and religious privilege, in relation to the children in the video. The introspective analyzation that I experienced was catalyzed by the visual desolation and destruction that I perceived. This desolation and destruction made it quite explicitly clear to me that these children did not live the same life and live in the same world that I did. I came to the realization that my empathetic disposition for these children was as strong as it was because of my obliviousness and ignorance.

The children that were documented in the virtual reality video were migrants. There were forced to relocate from their home country because of war and religious persecution. My social detachment and indifference from the migrant's current unsteady and fluid social situation makes me a migrant of our time.

Response to VR

My response to the virtual reality was mostly to the cinematic techniques. I believe that virtual reality gives us something literature cannot: the visual stimulus of a specific moment, but this has to be done a certain way for it to work. The location and people around you have to evoke a certain set of emotions.

I believe this was done well in a scene where it was almost completely dark, but you could still make out figures coming toward you or walking past you. This made me curious and also a bit afraid because I couldn't understand what was happening. Given that this virtual reality video was created to emphasize the perspective of children, I could understand why the creators would want to evoke this emotion in the audience. Children often don't understand everything in the world around them and can become easily frightened or confused. Therefore, this moment put you in the shoes of a specific child going through a migrant experience.

The scene on the boat was also very well done for similar reasons. The imagery of being so close to the water and seeing a young person steering the boat made me a bit nervous. Just given that I didn't know why any of this was happening. But, being close to the water evoked a curiosity natural to a child and allowed me to see from their perspective better than if I just read their story on paper.

More Alike Than Different

Every year I travel to somewhere in the United States with my church group for a mission trip. We stay for a week in an a town that is usually pretty poverty stricken. Every year when I go I am always astounded of the different behaviors, living conditions, and even food that these people endure every day. It always makes me take a step back and really realize how thankful I am for the things that I have.

During this virtual reality experience I almost felt as if I had taken a mini mission trip. I was again amazed at what some of these people have endured and how their lives were so different then mine. But, usually when people talk about mission trips and such they always end up talking about their differences instead of their similarities.

One thing that stuck out to me was the fact that all of the people interviewed in the virtual reality video were children, just like me. They had lived for the same about of time but had gone through totally different experiences. I think we should credit ourselves more alike than different because when we do we can help one another and realize that we are all people just trying to live happily and in peace.

A Glimpse Into Their World

Using Virtual Reality to gain perspective into what life can look like for a refugee was well worth using a class period in the makerspace. Despite the difficulties that some students faced, whether they did not have headphones, they struggled to set up the video, or got a headache from video format, I believe the end result and impact outweighed all other frustrations. The biggest impact watching "The Displaced" video had on me were the effects it had on my senses and emotional responses. When the video began, I was “standing” amidst the remnants of what looked like a school building. I became panicked, forgetting that I was actually sitting in a chair in the safe environment of my own school. Later, I appeared to be in a boat, traveling through a swamp with a girl who lost her mother amongst a lot of commotion. My mind began to race thinking of how we were going to survive living there. Again, I forgot that I was not actually in her shoes.

These are real people in real situations. They do not have the option to take off a headset and be transported to a more comfortable environment. I think that using this technology allowed for people to acquire a better understanding of what people's lives can look like, but then our experience ends. The people in these videos will have these memories forever. I think this was the first step in expanding our view, but it is also important to take what you have learned and apply it to life. That can be by informing others of what’s going on the world or continuing to use your knowledge to find ways to help.

Virtual Reality Experience

The past Monday, our AP English Class went to the newly opened Oak Park and River Forest High School "MakerSpace". The MakerSpace area allows students to get a "hands-on" experience working with various materials such as blocks, K'NEX toys, and Spheros. Our class experienced some of the wonders of Virtual Reality and 360 degree YouTube videos and helped us to get a better overall sense of the struggles that the main characters in Exit West face.

The main characters in the book, Saeed and Nadia are attempting to escape and survive through a Civil War in their country. While they have managed to escape, their living conditions aren't what most people would call 'sufficient' and they are always on the lookout for a surprise attack. They are refugees throughout the book. Therefore, to get a better sense of the pain and suffering they are going through, we watched a series of virtual reality videos that allow us to look around and get a better vantage point of the surrounding area. I initially liked this idea of these types of videos. However, personally, I think that virtual reality industry is far from perfect at this point in time.

The videos we watched were empowering, and you could definitely get a sense of what the people were going through. However, while you could get a sense of what was going on, The Google Cardboard used to experience these virtual reality videos were flimsy at best. Not only did the videos struggle to load, but my iPhone became very hot, and due to the physics of the videos, I had a headache ten minutes into the video. Thankfully, you are able to watch these videos without a headset and can move around them simply using a mouse. I navigated the videos without a headset and I was still able to get the full experience. I like the idea of these lifelike videos, and I think I see a future with them, but they do need to get better. Additionally, while we able to see what they refugees were going through and their environment, we weren't necessarily able to see or experience how they felt. I hope that someday, we can experience that and truly get an immersive experience that other people have.

Virtual Reality Journey

My period 7 AP English class participated in a virtual reality journey this Monday. In this class, we are reading the book, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. This book takes place in a country on the brink of a civil war. Though we do not know the exact country, It is safe to say it is somewhere in the middle east. In the book, two young people meet and develop a relationship together in the midst of this battlefield. In order to a get a proper understanding of the circumstances they are under we were put into a scene quite similar.
It was very intriguing for me to experience this culture shock, I have been to many different countries before, but nothing like the one I dove into this past Monday. On this endeavor, I got to walk around the neighborhood. Although, in order to walk around and explore I had to walk around in real life. I was so curious that I ended up accidentally walking into a few walls of the room my class was in. Also, I got to listen to a woman speak about what it was like to live in a country bound by war. She spoke about some of the biggest struggles, like keeping her children safe. At one point in the virtual reality experience, the viewer got to see and feel what it was like to ride in a car in a country like this where cars are not common.
Ultimately, having the opportunity to experience the virtual reality journey helped me and my fellow classmates gain a better understanding of what the Saeed and Nadia's (main characters in Exit West) lives were like.

Just Another Way To Tell a Story

Virtual reality is the new up and coming technology that can literally put you into any scene you choose. However, doesn't this sounds a little familiar. Literature does the same thing.

Literature creates a story that is capable of bringing emotions to the reader and is capable of transporting you to a completely different world than your own. Literature teaches us important values and morals. Literature broadens our perspectives. Literature can bring tears to someone's eyes and make our cheeks turn red with second hand embarrassment. The goal of virtual reality seems to be the same.
Virtual reality, can also accomplish all these tasks. The only thing it lacks is it does not give the audience the power of imagination and creativity to create their own version of the scene, while literature does.

We are currently reading the novel Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid. The novel is about Saeed and Nadia two refugees searching to find a safe place to call home during a devastating war. To get a glimpse of refugees outside the fiction world Hamid created, we used virtual reality. By using virtual reality, we were able to learn more information and apply it to the book.

Virtual reality can add information and other perspectives to one's current knowledge. However, it cannot take place of literature.

VR Isn't Necessary for Empathy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNraqiAwTPQ
Disclaimer: I watched the virtual reality videos in regular video format because the VR headsets gave me a headache. But because I experienced it this way, I think that the virtual reality is not the most important part of the experience. When the mother was talking about how their lives used to be normal, she says that she thought of Syria as somewhere where a war like this would never happen. She says that she would hear about bombings and war in other countries and felt pity for them, never thinking that someday other countries would feel pity for her. This reminded me of a video that I found out was produced by the same organization ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihoYKUmJ4aU ), showing a year in the life of a British girl going through a fictional war, forcing people who perhaps wouldn't otherwise see refugees as anything more than statistics as human beings. I think that the transplantation of the war into the western world is unnecessary for making viewers empathize with the victims of these conflicts. All you need is a basic understanding of their experience.

The VR video was effective because it made the viewer empathize with this mother who just wanted the best for her children. We hurt for her because she sees her children sick and can't help them, we relate to her because she's doing her best to have as normal of a life as she possibly can despite her circumstances, getting a job and sending her kids to school. The fancy technology required to make a virtual reality experience possible is a bad allocation of funding that could be better used towards providing aid to these refugees because at the end of the day we don't empathize with people because we see what their street looks like from all possible angles. We empathize with people when we see them as human beings, because we see their pain and hear their stories.

A New Form of Learning

Virtual reality is able to bridge the gap between audience and subject matter better than literature can. Although literature provides insight into people’s inner thoughts in a more intimate manner than through video, virtual reality allows audiences to live through the eyes of someone else. I watched the video about Mashallah, a Syrian refugee living in a Kurdish region in Iraq. I have watched a few documentaries and read a few articles about the civil war in Syria and the plight of its people, but the experience of using the virtual reality goggles heightened my understanding of the mindset of a Syrian refugee to a higher degree than the other ways I have received my information about the topic. The biggest difference, for me, was the ability to see the person’s face. You are obviously able to see people’s faces in documentaries as well, but virtual reality physically puts the viewer into the situation. When the young boys sang the song about being refugees, it felt like they were singing directly to me. I was able to understand Mashallah situation in an in-depth way, rather than merely feeling sympathetic for her.

Is literature enough? Are their limits to its power?

I believe there are limits to the capabilities of literature. As our class is reading “Exit West,” we learn about the different troubles Nadia and Saeed encounter as they flee their home to find safety. While the reader learns that their funds are quickly diminishing and that they must follow certain rules regarding where they sleep, what they eat, and who they talk to in order to remain safe, the virtual reality we experienced in class revealed to a whole different extent what refugee life was like. These videos were more capable of illustrating the emotions the refugees than the book ever could be. While the book provided a detailed account of the events one might encounter on their personal travels, and I could assume using my own background knowledge what they were going through, the video brought me more into their shoes and emotions.

One thing that is very revealing in the novel is the blind faith that Saeed and Nadia put into each door. The doors are completely black and the characters can’t see what’s on the other side. The characters feel as if they died and were reborn when passing through; this magic element of the book may actually accurately reflect what refugees feel when fleeing their country. They’re simply looking for something better, but a lot of them don’t know what to expect. They are re-prioritizing everything for them: Saeed and Nadia had to leave all their valuables and bring only the necessities to survive, and adopted a completely new mindset on what is important to them (growing into a new life).

However, the doors omit the most difficult part of the migrant experience- the journey itself. A lot of the videos were about the people being in the place in between where they came from and where they want to go. The doors give more insight yet skew the real struggles of migrants at the same time. Overall, though, the virtual reality is something that can display both how the migrants feel and what they are physically going through.

Virtual Reality is Reality

During my virtual reality experience, I chose to watch “Crossing the Line: Untold Stories of Refugees Stuck At The Border”. This video personally touched me because it included a story about refugees from Honduras. Over the last four years of my life, I’ve traveled to Honduras on a mission trip where we volunteer at a variety of orphanages and build relationships with the kids. Because I have this tie to Honduras, I felt a personal connection to these refugees because I have seen and heard about the poverty and injustice of their country.

The most striking aspect is how unwilling the United States is to welcome in the refugees who are coming from nothing, with hopes of a better life. Through my mission trip program, some children from the orphanages, once they turn 18, are given the opportunity to come to the United States and stay with a volunteer family while they attend college. I’ve always felt that this was an amazing opportunity that anyone should be able to receive, so I’m deeply saddened when I see that these refugees will not even be given citizenship, let alone an education and the means to excel in the country.

Stepping Into Their Reality

The biggest "wow" moment for me was when I was watching, rather experiencing the first VR video, The Displaced, and I was able to see the different little kids who were alone, with no parents to look after them. It was cool, but a little depressing. We got the chance to see what those people's lives are like on a daily basis. Even though we got a slight glimpse of what it's like there, we're not actually there. We're very privileged and have advantages that those people don't have. While watching the video, I felt guilty and responsible in a way. I felt guilty for obvious reasons, I have things they don't. For instance, a home to live in. Their lives are full of struggle, when all I had to do was turn off the video and it was over. I was able to go back to a good life. They can't go anywhere because that is their reality. I felt responsible because we have everything in this country, they have nothing. I felt like we needed to give back to those who are less fortunate.

An Immersion Into the Migrant World

I really enjoyed looking the virtual reality experience of migrants in our class. I think that it’s amazing how we have the technology to be able to see a glimpse into the world that migrants are experiencing on a daily basis. It’s difficult for students that have some privilege in Oak Park or River Forest and go to OPRF to imagine what Nadia or Saeed’s life is really like. Even though the book does an amazing job of describing the harsh truths and raw feelings that migrants usually feel, I think that using virtual reality can help a student immerse themselves completely. The physical experience of being inside of a migrant world can completely enhance the emotional feelings of what being in this situation really feels like. Since we can never truly experience exactly what these migrants go through everyday, I think it’s important that we try to get a full idea of the struggles they go through in order to fully understand them. I was shocked by the first video on the Youtube list, when you could see three little children standing in a demolished house. It made me feel for the little kids, when you discover that their home was ruined and you can only imagine the fear they feel. It made me think about the book in a new light. The video made me think over the fear and despair Nadia must have felt when she taped up her windows, so that her house wouldn’t be destroyed and she could be safe. It was a relief to be able to take off the virtual reality glasses and not see that fear or depression in others anymore, but we have to remember that migrants can’t take off their glasses. The virtual reality immersion experience made me more aware of the struggles migrants go through and what their lives actually look like on a day to day basis.