Allow me take you through a small journey into the Metaverse… and oh, don't worry, you won't be stuck in there. It's not a black hole.
THE CONCEPT OF THE METAVERSE
DEFINITION: The term “metaverse” refers to a centralized virtual-reality world where users interact with one another. It is also a hypothesized iteration of the internet, supporting persistent online 3-D virtual environments through conventional personal computing, as well as virtual and augmented reality headsets.
ORIGIN: Author, Neal Stephenson is credited with coining the term, “metaverse” in his 1992 science fiction novel “Snow Crash”, in which he envisioned life-like avatars who met in realistic 3D buildings and other virtual reality environments.
WHY IS THE METAVERSE IMPORTANT?
Whether in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or simply on a screen, the promise of the metaverse is to allow a greater overlap of our digital and physical lives in wealth, socialization, productivity, shopping and entertainment.
WHAT CAN THE METAVERSE DO?
“The metaverse is an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D worlds and stimulations that support continuity of identity, objects, history, payments and entitlements, and can be experienced synchronously by an effectively unlimited number of users, each with an individual sense of presence.”s
HOW WILL HUMANS BE ABLE TO ENTER THE METAVERSE?
The answer is simple. Virtual-Reality glasses. These glasses enables you to view things in 3-D and make your presence more felt online than in the physical.
Although this is the pathway to the future, some notable organizations have kicked against introducing the VR glasses into the market. A gadget that might cost a little above $300.
WHAT WILL PEOPLE LOOK LIKE IN THE METAVERSE?
People in the “metaverse” would look more like “avatars” (Not the avatar movie character). The avatars would be personalized and the owner would have to recreate his natural features in the “avatar”. This “avatar” feature is currently being used on some social media platforms as Facebook already has its “avatar” feature, Snapchat has its own as “Bitmoji” and there is also the “memoji” but in the metaverse, these “avatars” would be presented in 3-D and would be able to do some reflexes.
CAN MOBILE ACTIONS IN THE METAVERSE BLEND WITH YOUR REAL LIFE ACTIONS?
Walking around in the metaverse affects your real life movement like “walking on a straight path in the metaverse with your VR glasses and then bumping into a coffee table in real life”. This happens because what you see with your VR glasses doesn’t co-relate to what is actually in your environment.
WHY DID FACEBOOK CHANGE ITS COMPANY NAME TO “META”?
Just two years ago, CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company’s name would change from “Facebook Inc.” to “Meta” and billions of social media users reacted to the new development.
Even though much is not known about how Facebook’s metaverse would look like, we all know that Mark Zuckerberg has always craved for advancements in video conferencing and the metaverse has presented itself as the answer to that problem.
So, to answer the question, it is safe to say that Mark Zuckerberg wants to dominate this new phase of social media interaction as he’s the head of the biggest social media platform in the world since his company, Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Oculus amongst others.
SHOULD WE BE AFRAID OF THE METAVERSE?
Actually, Yes. How?
Addiction: The metaverse would be very addictive more than the way the current internet is and users would love to explore this platform to the fullest and this could lead to some harmful effects if left unchecked.
Social media segregation: The virtual reality VR glasses might cost over $300 and there would be folks that may not be able to afford it. The ones that would be able to afford it would feel superior to the ones unable to join them in their level and thereby, the social status woes online would increase with a good margin.
Some religious organizations have warned its followers to avoid the metaverse as a publication released in Italy talked about some of the dangers of the universe.
A Christian writer warned christians about the metaverse saying that “Mark Zuckerberg wants us to feel like gods with his social media apps and that is exactly what the snake (devil) said to Eve while he was convincing her to eat the forbidden fruit”. Many other christians have linked this development with the “End Time” and are telling believers to be ready for the “rapture” as the time for the event is near.
WHAT ARE THE FUN FACTS ABOUT THE METAVERSE?
No matter how scary the metaverse might be, there are still some exciting things about the development like:
Trying on a cloth digitally before ordering for it online.
Haggling prices with an online vendor before purchasing a product.
Chatting with friends while being able to see them in 3-D.
CONCLUSION:
Many people and organizations have kicked against the idea of the “metaverse” and many critics have written so bad about it but we shouldn’t forget that the current internet was also kicked against by critics, many of whom later enjoyed the benefits the internet presented and we should know that the “metaverse” as a coin, has two sides which is the good and the bad but while critics are busy highlighting the bad side, we should leverage on the good and never leave it unexplored when the technology is finally launched.