Zuckerberg’s Virtual Tour to Hurricane-Hit Puerto Rico

Mark Zuckerberg recently toured Hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico making the best utilization of VR technique. The tech geek’s VR tour has been attaining mixed reviews from critics and technical pundits from across the globe. Critics soon dubbed Zuckerberg as a heartless billionaire who is exploiting the dire situation in the area.
It was a Virtual Reality based virtual tour to the areas of Puerto Rico where hurricane Maria has really affected the city conditions.

Zuckerberg’s tour to Puerto Rico was an initiative to show the power of Oculus Rift VR headsets to help users take a virtual tour of affected areas from any other part of the world. Hurricane Maria hit the coasts of Puerto Rico devastatingly only to make the city conditions worse than ever.

The Facebook CEO accompanied head of company’s social VR unit, Rachel Franklin to take the virtual tour of affected areas. During the demonstration, they showcase the usages of safety check features that Facebook has invented for the users to alert their loved ones about the safety following a disastrous situation or any natural calamity like hurricanes.

Facebook has been making the best utilization to map the affected areas in Puerto Rico in order to make the situations better in the affected parts. The giant social networking site is doing every possible thing to offer a helping hand to residents in Puerto Rico. Facebook is also making initiatives to help Red Cross reach easily to the citizens who are in immediate need of help.

Facebook has donated nearly US$1.5 million to the relief funds, but the world-renowned social networking site is still facing a lot of criticism owing to the fact that Facebook is capitalizing on the situation to market its own product in the market.

While it was an exceptional move to use the elements of virtual reality as well as augmented reality to offer help to hurricane-affected area, Facebook has received a number of criticisms for taking the advantage of situation for its own benefit. A similar attempted has been made by Google to keep internet services alive in Puerto Rico by offering Wi-fi connection in the affected area.

Facebook is capable of informing people much earlier than any other similar medium. It has a wide reach and can be used to make the best utilization of the technique as it did with the recent VR tour to the affected parts of the region. However, the giant social networking site is equally getting criticised and appreciated for the Puerto Rico VR tour. However, we should understand the fact that it is a part of the evolution of technology that is spreading widely for our own good.