Mark Zuckerberg Acknowledges Limits of VR-Based Sense of Empathy

Touring the flooded humanitarian crisis of Puerto Rico as wacky avatars

I know for a fact that Mark Zuckerberg employs several high level Linden Lab staff (in the past and the present) to lead development of Facebook's social VR offerings, so it's strange that the social network keeps making unforced PR errors that Linden vets could have warned them about beforehand. For instance:

The sight of Mr Zuckerberg using VR to survey the devastation of an island still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria may have been meant to convey Facebook's empathy with the victims. The fact that he was there in the form of a cartoon seemed to many the perfect visual metaphor for the gulf in understanding between Silicon Valley and the real world.

The media would frequently bring up criticisms like this when writing about Second Life-based fundraisers for real life charities. Fortunately, we always had a ready answer: It's not about keeping real world miseries at a distance through cartoon characters, but a pre-existing community of virtual world users rallying together to help real people in ways they might not have otherwise done in other mediums.

In Zuckerberg's case, he's prompted to acknowledge the empathy limitations of Facebook's social VR model in the comments of his own Facebook post:

   

Tip to Zuck: Maybe talk to some ex-Lindens in your network a bit longer?

Hat tip: Adam Frisby.

Comments

[Amanda]

Zuckerberg might be more believable if he wasn't promoting the Red Cross. The Red Cross is the worst charity to support in a disaster. My personal experience with the Red Cross is their great at promoting themselves and raising donations but not so good at helping people.

[sirhc deSantis]

Its those inane happy grins that will ensure that ZWorld will be the saviour of ... something.