I have been talking to strangers in VR, which is actually quite easy to do. It has been a totally interesting and eye-opening experience. First of all, there is

I have been talking to strangers in VR, which is actually quite easy to do. It has been a totally interesting and eye-opening experience. First of all, there is no safety risk, so a lot of the natural anxiety about talking to unknown people is gone. Because of this safety, people are much more willing to talk openly with you. You would think it would be all gamer geeks, but it turns out that people from every walk of life enjoy things like poker and battle royale. The ages go from about 10 to 60 and careers go from plumber to developer to student to prison guard. My biggest learning is that I am in an incredible bubble. Everyone I have been interacting with for my whole life, even the strangers at the store have been heavily filtered without me even knowing it. Social media has done nothing to expand my bubble because it is an echo chamber where most voices are down-voted, drowned out or never expressed in the first place. My conclusion is that on the one hand, there's so much variation in people's circumstances and values that you need these filters in order to ever find a person who you are remotely simaler to. On the other hand, there's a great joy in hearing about someone's life and perspective who is so different that they would have never had a conversation with you on the street. It expands your world, makes you less judgemental, and makes you more acutely aware of what a difference ethnicity, age, class, education, and nationality can really be when we don't have our guard up and can speak freely.