Facebook Wants Us to Put on a VR Headset to Go to Work. Um, No Thanks

Some of us would rather be... anywhere but a virtual reality meeting

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are betting on virtual reality for the workplace, but not everyone was a fan of their big announcement Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with CBS This Morning's Gayle King, Zuckerberg laid out plans for Horizon Workrooms, a VR app that simulates a meeting room where you can sit down with avatars of your coworkers.

As King interviewed Zuckerberg in VR, she remarked at his avatar's freckles. You could see Zuck's avatar using hand gestures as he spoke, utilizing the Oculus headset controller's hand tracking technology.

The company says having meetings in VR is one step toward the idea of "the metaverse," a concept born in the 1992 sci-fi novel "Snow Crash." Zuckerberg called it an internet full of experiences that we can be a part of, or inside of.

Or as one source explained it to NBCLX's Eric Rodriguez in June: "The metaverse at the highest level, the simplest way to explain it, is the new internet. And this new internet will be 3D and immersive."

Despite the flashy buzzwords surrounding the app, some tech reporters have pointed out that a suite of apps from one company will not really constitute a "metaverse." It's just VR - and while still a novelty to many, the app is essentially VRchat with some Microsoft Teams features added.

So not everyone was happy to see what Facebook is pushing as the future of work.


Zuckerberg markets the app as a more immersive, refreshing alternative to Zoom. Here's another way to look at it:

And others are lamenting that the virtual office will lack in colorful characters:

Others prefer to be in VR by themselves: