The article is devoted to the consideration of the determining role of virtual reality in contemporary society. The author is positive about virtual processes that can become a tool for the development of a social system. The trend of virtualization of classical social institutions is being asserted. The author examines the history of the concept of “virtual reality”: from medieval approaches to Russian virtual studies. Virtual reality is recognized as a multi-layered formation, whose interpretation is not limited only to digital virtual reality. At the same time, digital virtual reality is the most developed form of virtuality, which acts as a unified channel for broadcasting diverse virtual phenomena. The activity of a social subject is the basis of virtual reality. The author identifies three functions of the subject in his connection with virtual reality: the medium of the virtual as a special social mode, a way to identify the reality of the virtual and management of social reality through virtual social institutions. As a result, the author not only fixes the instrumental nature of the virtual, but includes virtuality in the being of the social system as a structural element of the subject’s space: the functioning of a social system, understood as a self-regulating subject, manifests itself in the active role of virtual reality.