Ready for panic and hyperbole about new technology? Lots of people are having full-body spasms over VR, especially because Facebook has a big role, and there's a scary photo going around that shows everyone wearing VR goggles while Mark Zuckerberg walks around grinning, eyes wide open. We're plugging ourselves into the Matrix! There's no escape!

Uh huh. Here's a classic of the genre, from Quartz: The Future is Here and It Looks Horrible.

That makes no sense.

Why is it bad if everyone is experiencing a story with goggles, but good if it's in a darkened movie theater? That's simple. It's because -

Hold on, there has to be a good reason, just can't think of it at the moment. It's just bad, okay? Here's a clue, in a piece of Atlantic whimsy: In Virtual Reality, Finally a World for Men

It's meant sarcastically; if such a thing was offered as - well, a virtue, that wouldn't be acceptable. Is it because the image of people with VR goggles reminds people of "Wall-E"? Possibly. It's the distance from your eyes to the screen that seem to matter. Movie? Good! TV a few yards away? Depends. Computer on your desktop? Worse. Monitors an inch from your eyes? HUXLEYTOWN.

There will be bad VR apps and good ones. There will be naughty experiences and elevating experiences. There will be intricate, brilliant storytelling, and cheap pulp. Let's wait to see if it's actually adapted by lots of people before we decide it's the ruination of human society.