By Robyn Beck
In the wake of Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of messaging service WhatsApp, the social network’s recent $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR — makers of the virtual-reality gaming headset the Oculs Rift — feels like a real bargain. How exactly Mark Zuckerberg and co. will integrate fully-immersive virtual reality, or VR, into the Facebook experience isn’t known yet. (Some have speculated that you’ll be able to virtually hang out with your Facebook friends, or take online shopping to the next level.) But the Rift — which isn’t commercially available yet—has the potential to change not only social media and address larger societal issues (like being used as a treatment for soldiers for PTSD), but alter the way we consume music, movies, TV, sports and more.
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