How VR Will Reinvent Aging By Janet Siroto
When you hear the two letters VR (for virtual reality), you probably conjure up images of obsessed video gamers, lurching around their basements in futuristic headsets.
Rather than being a solitary pursuit, VR group "outings" await. Instead of putting on a headset and wandering through a vivid landscape solo, you can stroll around Paris' Left Bank and chat with your amis (friends) about what you are seeing.
Seriously now, what allure could this sci-fi technology possibly hold for a boomer at midlife and beyond? Frankly, quite a lot. VR allows for intensely "real" simulated experiences. Businesses like MyndVR and Viva Vita are producing virtual "bucket-list" travel experiences, whether that means swimming with dolphins in Mexico or hot-air ballooning across the Southwest – a huge boon for people who can't travel due to mobility, health or financial issues. The Issue of Isolation But there's something more significant on the horizon: immersive experiences going deeper and helping tackle isolation and cognitive decline, two of the biggest issues as we age. One report found that nearly 1 in 4 adults aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, which significantly
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increases a person's risk of premature death from all causes and is also linked to a 50% higher risk of dementia. How can VR help? Rendever, a Massachusetts-based company, offers one path. Kyle Rand, co-founder and CEO, was a college student when he began to observe how isolation diminished his beloved grandmother's quality of life, and he vowed to do something about it. He's been working ever since to use VR "to power new social connections via shared experiences – nothing is more important for this demographic," he says.
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Julie Bauman, executive director of Ohio Living Breckenridge Village, a community in Ohio, has partnered with Rendever for almost a year, and has seen firsthand the impact group VR can make. "We wanted to offer residents a new avenue for experiencing things and reminiscing in a positive way. We schedule a dozen or so group sessions a week, and the immersive experience is very powerful," Bauman says, adding that participants reach out with their hands as they, say, travel through Machu Picchu ("They are really there, right in it!") and afterward stay and discuss the experience.
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