I mean, the rest of us have had proper VR headsets for ten years. Lots of "normal" people in VR now. Mixed reality headsets barely get in the way of socializing with other people in your room, while adding socializing with people not in your room.

It's about the same as socializing with someone watching TV or playing a videogame on a TV or computer monitor. Even without seeing their game/app/document/show it's pretty easy to determine on sight if they are currently too engaged to properly hold a conversation.

Doing work in VR is about the same as outside of VR, but with the possibility for less distractions and a more organized work area. There are no longer any tradeoffs in modern headsets now that they rival the clarity of a comfortably positioned monitor or TV. And can display many such virtual screens wherever you want them to be.

But, those possibilities don't mean you -have to- shut yourself off, how much you want to be distracted by outside stuff is entirely up to you and the people around you. If you prefer to be interrupted, as many people with family do, it's just as possible to keep your work space contained to a single screen and to work with the outside world pouring in at all times.

As for gaming, you have every option. You don't have to only play games where you are physically partaking in the adventure. But you have the option to when it's the right kind of gaming for that situation. You also have the option of sitting on your living room recliner with the rest of the family watching TV or a movie or playing a game, and you have an additional virtual screen beside the real TV with your work or game or different TV show on it. And with non-apple headsets, each member of your family can financially reasonably have the same option. One family shared screen to socialize with, and one personal screen. And before you ask, yes there are parental controls for VR headsets.

While the minimum age for VR has legally been 13 for most of the past 10 years, it has recently reduced to 10. Though many people started their kids as early as 4-5 years old, and those kids are perfectly healthy teenagers now. As with all other digital content, it's best to know what they are actually doing in VR. You have a range of options all the way down to literally seeing the video feed of their headset in real time, or as minimally invasive as just seeing what programs they are launching/playing. For younger kids, it's best to not play anything online. Not only for them, but for the rest of us, lol.

And for people that have been in VR 8 hours a day for 10 years now, there have been no negative health issues. And actually compared to people who spend 8 hours a day watching TV or playing traditional videogames on a screen, the VR users are significantly better off on average. While that is only the extreme of 8 hours a day, it illustrates the point most effectively. Spending less time doing any is generally better, but the subset of VR players that spend most of their time in active games were better off than the average person that spent less time doing any. Because obviously just sitting for long periods of time is the main problem. But there were no detriments to vision in the VR players, which makes sense as, if anything it is again possible to be more healthy to our eyes in VR than staring at any other screen.

Got mine today.

1. I wore it for about an hour comfortably and tried Safari, djay, AppleTV, Encounter Dinosaurs, and then watched Thor: Ragnarok in 3D from start to finish. I was comfortable the whole time but you can definitely feel that you have something on your face and head. The only place I feel any discomfort (and it’s more of just a pressure than discomfort) is on my cheeks where the headset rests. Pretty similar to others I own (Quest, Vive, Index, etc) but it is a little heavier.

2. I will be working with it (content and media production) and watching a lot of movies. My wife’s schedule for work is offset from mine so being able to watch 3D movies in bed while she’s sleeping would have been reason enough for me to buy it. The other stuff is icing for me. Additionally, I didn’t know this but all my movies in my iTunes/Apple Library that have a 3D version are available for me to watch in 3D at no extra charge. My library just shows up like any other device but it prompts me to choose 2D or 3D on playback start.

3. I don’t anticipate this changing anything. I don’t plan on using it while my wife is home unless she’s sleeping or watching something else on the main TV in our house. We also have had other VR headsets before and our office is zoned with the Index base stations so I think my usage will start similarly to that - occasional or when I know she won’t be around. One thing that is really different already and I find cool is that the Vision detects people and highlights them in my view and then turns on the weird EyeVision thing (or whatever it’s called) so that my wife knows when I’m actually interacting with her vs whatever is on the headset. If I’m still engaged on the headset, she just sees a rainbow swirl effect until my eyes focus to her and then the Apple googley eyes pop out. We FaceTimed with it too and Personas are cool but will make you look like a sex offender for the first few minutes until the newness wears off and then it’s a decent enough approximation to be serviceable for its intended purpose.

You can indeed have a virtual monitor from a mac mini, I have to initiate it from the mini though, no option comes up like it does on an m1 laptop

Haven't tried steam link yet

Wearing glasses with the Vision Pro is not really an option. You need a pretty tight fit for it to work properly. There are prescription magnetic inserts that can be ordered for $149.

I’m nearsighted, and the inserts I purchased are extremely easy to put in and remove. You would need to check if they can work with your prescription.

When I signed up for an in store demo, it included questions about vision. It sounds like they might be able to have matching optics available for you to actually try out for yourself if you have access to an Apple Store.