Aussie CEOs Did A ‘Homelessness’ VR Experience Because Reality Is Too Much

You’re probably familiar with the CEOSleepout – it’s a yearly event organised by the St. Vincent de Paul Society in which CEOs camp out in capital cities across Australia with a cardboard box bed and sleep through a single winter night for charity. It doesn’t do a whole lot to address the worsening structural causes of poverty and homelessness, but charity is charity, so there you go.

But this year’s entry included a new element that immediately raised eyebrows: virtual reality. The official CEOSleepout Twitter posted a video of their participating CEOs wearing VR goggles to “get a glimpse of the realities faced by the people who experience this every day.”

Uh, okay. 

Our Sydney CEOs using virtual reality to get a glimpse of the realities faced by the people who experience this everyday. #CEOSleepoutAu pic.twitter.com/b53wqESdLA

— CEOSleepout (@CEOSleepout) June 22, 2017

Getting out there and sleeping is one thing, but one wonders what you’d learn about the crippling experience of poverty and homelessness through a simulation. Twitter seemed to agree.

When you want to be woke but don’t actually want to mingle with the dirty poors

— Uncanny Valley Forge (@faust_arp1990) June 22, 2017

Why don’t they go outside and talk to some homeless people?

— Jake Holman (@JacobLeigh) June 22, 2017

Yes! Dealing with the virtual cold, the virtual violence, the virtual hunger, the virtual untreated illnesses, the virtual despair …

— David Scott Aubrey (@davidakaclean) June 22, 2017

It’s gonna be weird when they don’t give a shit because all you did was make them watch a video, huh?

— Hank Single (@Hanksingle) June 22, 2017

This is vile poverty porn. Who thought of this? ??

— NoFucksGiven (@FionaGillen2013) June 23, 2017

Press ‘F’ to pay respects.

— ??????? (@Lireoec) June 22, 2017

Just bullshit! How about we increase taxes on corporations and use that to fund housing, mental health services and welfare with dignity

— Travis Bickle (@travisbynight) June 22, 2017

Perhaps this is exacerbated by the fact that 99% of all VR experiences are absolutely terrible right now. Nothing like a bit of headset gaming to really get you into the world of the homeless.