If a magazine's cover photo is meant to generate interest in the main story, then the August cover of Time is certainly drawing a lot of interest, but the reactions from Twitter users range from the creative to the hilarious, rather than the serious and academic.
The Aug. 17 issue of Time Magazine features a picture of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey wearing an Oculus Rift headset while floating awkwardly in the air and on the beach. The headline for the issue reads: "The Surprising Joy of Virtual Reality."
Instead of revolutionizing the way people see virtual reality, however, it has sparked people's creativity in crafting hilarious posts bashing and poking fun at the cover on Twitter.
Iconic film posts:
@therealcliffyb Couldn't resist. ;) pic.twitter.com/4NQKsHyYT7
— Sean Pelletier (@PellyNV) August 6, 2015
@dailydot @Danielleri @TIME not mine, but it's my favourite for sure pic.twitter.com/8fcqSTU708 — generic_treats.txt (@arranseaton) August 6, 2015
@BillCorbett @dailydot Marvel's running out of characters...#RiffTraxVR pic.twitter.com/opVbZ42lm9
— Andrew Horn (@bbofun) August 6, 2015
Virtual in virtual reality:
I decided to photoshop @Time's VR cover image too. Into nightmares. #waterlevel pic.twitter.com/mUvPEqLZJ2 — Janelle Bonanno (@s0osleepie) August 6, 2015
The graphics are amazing. pic.twitter.com/tn1FZF1gO8
— The Daily Dot (@dailydot) August 6, 2015
Other notably hilarious yet creative tweets include:
.@TIME I got a cover for ya pic.twitter.com/doFAmZdj7o — Matt Ufford (@mattufford) August 6, 2015
.@dailydot @TIME alright here we go pic.twitter.com/Iqg4iliy93
— it's ammnontet!!! (@ammnontet) August 6, 2015
Palmer Luckey's movie career is really taking off. pic.twitter.com/ZJcwn13tER — Dalibor (@DaliDimovski) August 6, 2015
The internet does not like the new #Time magazine cover about virtual reality https://t.co/mSEc2djZrn pic.twitter.com/edNrSepbVU
— Roblem VR (@RoblemVR) August 7, 2015
Some tweets had a serious tone, expressing disappointment over the odd-looking cover photo:
Seriously, awesome for both #VR and @oculus that Time is giving Palmer a front page feature, but DAMN who the hell approved this cover???? — Logan Dwight (@LoganDwight) August 6, 2015
I didn't expect a cover of Time to be the thing that killed VR.
— Tanner Niland (@Tovan) August 6, 2015
That Time cover photo just set virtual reality back at least five years. Probably a decade. — Austin Reynolds (@ReynoldsRant) August 7, 2015
Though it may seem that the Time Magazine cover virtually killed virtual reality's moment to shine in the spotlight, the hundreds of posts online might just have sparked real and in-depth interest in the technology. In the meantime, Oculus and its employees don't seem to be bothered by all the attention the cover is getting and is, in fact, encouraging people to unleash their creativity.
We are making a nice collection of @PalmerLuckey photoshops at work today. Send me if you see any good ones!
— Andrew Melim (@AndrewMelim) August 6, 2015
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