Nem x Mila Launch New Survey to Explore Lifestyle of Social VR Users

Swiss anthropologist Mila (Liudmila Bredikhina) and metaverse culture evangelist Virtual Girl Nem have announced a new large-scale survey titled "Social VR Census 2023", which will focus on the themes of "Population Growth," "Community," and "Economy." Those who have VR head-mounted displays are eligible—and are highly encouraged—to participate. The deadline for participating in the survey is September 16, 2023.

Nem and Mila have also collaborated with organizations HIKKY, PANORA, Meta-cul Frontier, VR Ajito, AXON PARK, VNOS Corporation, and the University of Malta through Dr. Vanessa Camilleri, senior lecturer in artificial intelligence, who provided advisory and collaborative support for the survey.

For the researchers, the survey focuses on the changes brought about by the rapid increase in users. Moreover, topics such as community and economy were added as requested by Social VR users in their preliminary survey.

In an exclusive statement to VTuber NewsDrop, Mila stated that the new survey hopes to see the role of economy affecting the lifestyle of social VR users.

"This year, our research focuses on exciting aspects of Social VR, such as its rapid population growth, communities, and economy. Also, we believe a lot has happened since the 2021 edition, and we look forward to highlighting the changes."

They hope that the survey aims to bring into light the current trends that help shape the lifestyle of VR users.

"We are excited to invite you to participate in the Social VR Lifestyle Survey 2023! Your participation in this survey will be immensely valuable in advancing our understanding of the ever-changing realm of social VR. Your responses will help shape the future of this exciting field."

Meanwhile, Nem told NewsDrop that with this being a large-scale survey series cross-overing several platforms of social VR, they worked more with various online communities. For her, it is observed that for many years, people using social VR have multiplied and that many new communities have appeared.

"Sometimes social VR is very misunderstood by [the] media and non-VR people. By publishing [a] meaningful report, we want people to know the reality and make a chance to think about [a] better future [for the VR scene].

"This time, we will difinitely get more than 1000 answers from Japanese users but our weak point is how we get answers from English world. We want to [use this] research [to start a] world-wide trend."

Nem and Mila previously released their data results of their survey tackling perspectives and insights related to harassment in the metaverse.

What You Need to Know About Harassment in the Metaverse

Swiss anthropologist Mila and metaverse culture evangelist Virtual Girl Nem have recently published their recent report which analyzes over 900 respondents’ experiences of harassment unique to VR as well as its impact on life in both the physical world and the metaverse.

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