The Metaverse; a concept that I personally wasn’t familiar with before attending this course. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t really think about the developments of technology and what impact it would have on us on a daily basis. That’s exactly why I took this course, trying to make a small change in that and learning about technology on the go.
During my quest for a subject for my final blog post, I stumbled upon the reading from Matthew Ball who explained what the metaverse is and how he thinks it will deploy itself over time. He explained it through the examples of the internet, apps, and mobile devices and instantly I could get a grasp on how this metaverse will become in the future. The reading is very good to follow, so if you also want to get to know the metaverse a bit you should definitely take a read.
Duursma VS Ball
The reading made me wonder about how this metaverse will ultimately take a place in society and I stumbled upon a blog post by Jarno Duursma (written in Dutch) who told us his vision of the metaverse. Where Ball was mostly positive about the impact the metaverse will have on our society, Duursma mostly asked questions about what the metaverse will contribute to society.
The end of traffic jams
Duursma made me think critically about the metaverse. Zuckerberg tells the world the metaverse will function as a second society. And while there are positive effects of this virtual society; no rubbish on the virtual streets, no virtual traffic jams, no long travel times from one place to the other for example. These concepts got me thinking that this metaverse could actually do something positive for our society (and maybe it will in the end). On the other hand, I am concerned about the way the metaverse will take place.
Our real society nowadays is run by the same people that will be on the metaverse. So, it could mean no traffic jams anymore, but this new societal platform will definitely also mean new problems that will be specific to this platform and will also affect the society that we live in now.
One company in charge of it all
So this metaverse can have a lot of different outcomes, and it is nice to wonder about what our future lives will look like. But personally, I’m a bit concerned by the fact that we have so many problems going on nowadays, it feels weird to add another societal influence to it. Of course, it’s nice to not have that much traffic daily, but the influence of the metaverse can cause much bigger problems like being overweight, mentally drifting further and further away from our body, and living in your bubble society with Meta distributing all the data on you.
If you read my previous post about the responsibility of the negative effects of Instagram, you can draw your own conclusions on wheter you’d like one company distributing all of this data to you and to be in charge of a whole metaverse. Or do you think this is not much of a difference between the fact that Meta nowadays also owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook which all are great influences of our lives as well? Or, do you think this is a bit more nuanced than how I portray it in this blog post?
Let me know in the comments!
Thank you for this blog! I like reading about the positve sides of the metaverse. I have the feeling that in the media there is more attention for the downsides. I never really noticed those advantages, like no traffic jams. Now I think about it, that was one of the nice things of the lockdown period: no traffic on the way to school. The online classes were not the same, though. Like you say, the metaverse can cause bigger problems. That’s why I still prefer the physical classes.
Really interesting blog! I did have a bit of prior knowledge on the metaverse, but I’ve definitely come to know it better now. I think you bring up some good points about how it might prevent traffic jams or lessen littering or perhaps even, contribute to less CO2 emissions because of less air traffic as well since people will “travel” virtually. However, my main concern regarding climate and also people, is where the technology comes from. Already we see catastrophic consequences of, for example, cobalt mining needed for lithium batteries. Many hundreds of thousands of Congolese workers work in horrible inhumane conditions to bring the West their precious materials. So my worry when moving forward into things like the metaverse at such a rapid pace is that we are neglecting the real-world consequences to focus on this “shiny” new tech. Which to me, veers more toward dys- rather than u-topian.
I think the point you make about introducing another reality amid the chaos of our current one is intriguing. It really works with the idea of always seeking progress right, when maybe some technological advancements are not perse an improvement (at current state of development). It also made me think of the idea of space exploration in search for a planet B, or something like you see in sci-fi films. Where a new planet is discovered, yet the chaos of the ‘old’ world remains, leading to the same cycle of events that led to Earth’s deterioration in the first place.
Thank you for such an interesting post! I loved the idea of how you critically engaged with the topic of Metaverse. Same as you, I have neither thought about nor knew in detail what Metaverse is. Technological progress is inevitable, but is it even such a huge advancement? For example, in the case of digital fashion runways. Or, as you stated, “no traffic jams” in the digital environment.
To be honest, I consider Metaverse to be a utopian world for us, at least for now. I agree with you that Metaverse might only become a possible threat, as one of the extreme consequences might be that the physicality of space (by this I mean physical spaces such as schools, restaurants, public places, and even one’s home, etc) would not be entertaining, engaging, and necessary to us anymore. I had a very similar experience during COVID-19 when all classes were online, public spaces were on lockdown, and even at home, you were stuck in an online environment. However, after the lockdown people mostly returned to their lives without having everything online, although our society made some changes.
regarding the idea of having one company control it all. i see why it sounds like a good idea but you gotta remember, companies are not people and they are not inherently good willed. if a single company owns it all then it would be many levels of dystopian i feel. its often a joke but if a company could control everything you see, hear and ingest why wouldnt they? it might harm you but it makes them more money and that is the final objective of every company after all
I personally am a little bit scared for the come of the metaverse. I am also currently not a very big fan of everything being digitalized and made online, as I very sincerely value real human social interactions. I am scared that with the come of the metaverse all social interactions will happen via a screen or VR-headset or whatever it will look like. This would be a development which I would not be happy about, and also don’t think would be good for humanity. It also scares me that eventually the metaverse probably will be such an embedded part of society that you can’t live without it, even if you wanted to. Meta owning all my data as the metaverse grows doesn’t scare me the most, as you already said they currently already own almost all of my data, together with google.
Similarly to you, I knew a little bit about the metaverse prior this course, mainly that it is a virtual reality and we need glasses to access it. It does seem that it will experience great advancements in the near future and surely people in the tech world have high hopes for it. No traffic jams, no rubbish on the streets seem indeed like an unreachable utopia, but I have to wonder (along with other commenters here): What would it do to the human aspect of our lives? The need to socialise, the need to feel the human connection, the ability to use all of our senses? Being able to travel to a museum on the other side of the world to see an exhibition, without having to travel the distance physically, seems like a lovely idea in some cases, but it is also nice to meet new people, explore new places, feel new sensations and taste new flavours. Personally, I think that we will see new advancements in metaverse and it being more widespread in the next few years, but I also think that we, collectively, are not entirely ready to let go of the physical world just yet.