METAVERSE: INTERACTION OR ESCAPISM
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, announced that his organization would focus on creating the so-called “metaverse” – tridimensional virtual and augmentative space. This revolutionary vision, however, brings along numerous potential challenges for global public.
In the past two years, the Coronavirus pandemic has radically changed the way people communicate, work and spend their free time. Increased leaning on digital communication and accelerated technological progress “push” consequentially the entire world into the new civilization era- the one that will impose biotechnological connectivity between the real and virtual world.
Global big tech magnates, as well as marketing experts worldwide, aware of the challenges brought to business by digital era, try to adapt to new circumstances. By creating numerous new and challenges of business and amusement, they try to understand and anticipate future needs and wishes of the consumers.
What is a Metaverse?
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, presented last October his business vision for the future: by renaming his mother company to Meta, he announced that the organization would focus on creating the so-called “metaverse” – tridimensional virtual and augmentative space within which the real people would be able to move, socialize, work, gain and share experience, then invest, purchase, sell and build property, and all that through their avatars. Without leaving their apartments, the users will be able to “teleport” almost everywhere they want.
Such a virtual I – the avatars in “imaginary”, digital world- would have similar or identical mental and physical features, facial expressions or mime of their “originals”, and numerous technological options will enable the avatars also to virtually “put to use” all five human senses, including also the simulation of the sense of smell, taste and touch.
By investing huge resources into VR and AR Industry, the bosses of the biggest social network announce a true virtual revolution, that will enable their future users to be wherever they want, with whoever they want, regardless of geographic distance. This will provide new interaction methods between the users, who – in order to access to this “paradigital” world, will have to acquire special equipment and apps, from special goggles and headphones, which depict broader and virtual reality. The ones who know about these things estimate that global market of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) is more than 30 billion US dollars’ worth, but that already up to 2024, it will grow to close to 300 billion US dollars.
Promises are not enough
There are already the first analysts’ estimates which say that by the middle of this decade Zuckerberg’s metaverse might reach the value between 800 billion and one trillion US dollars. However, this has not particularly impressed the investors and stock market brokers. Namely, in previous period the value of the Facebook shares rapidly went down. At the beginning of February, only in one day, the market value of the company declined by even 230 billion US dollars, which is the biggest daily loss of an American company in the history of Wallstreet. Drop of company shares price led to the drop of personal wealth of Mark Zuckerberg by 31 billion US dollars, which is the amount equivalent to the annual GDP of Estonia.
This drop was partly caused by a fact that certain users’ group, dominantly teenagers and those bellow 29, started massively using some other platforms; among them TikTok is the most visible, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. In spite of the fact that Mark Zuckerberg has recently presented new internet “values” of his Meta corporation – “Move Fast”, “Build Awesome Things” or “Live in the Future” – it showed that investor prefer to see continuous and sustainable incomes, rather than luxurious promises on future extraordinary growth and development.
Numerous critics believe that concept of “upgrading” Facebook to a new level, brings numerous dangers for global public and believe that this magnate thereby wants to diver the attention from numerous problems he had caused in previous period. Particularly in the domain of abuse and “resale” of users’ personal data or not loyal competition suppression. Accusation against this house refer also to a planned creating and directing public opinion, since millions worldwide are being informed exclusively via social networks. Despite all these challenges, creation of a new perspective of digital communicating will still be in focus of global strategists, all until ultimate goal is achieved, which is networking all inhabitants of this planet and continuation of exploitation of not loyal consumers megabase, which will enable permanent inflow of enormous profit for corporate leaders in the market.
Real or virtual reality
Even though metauniverse is neither new nor the original idea of Meta Corporation owner, what it warrying is that the big part of world population is today “relocating” from the reality and they do not need any parallel reality for the respective. Through the internet, TV and reality programs, other people’s lives are watched and monitored to a great extent. And ever stronger impact of social networks, based on virtual communication, has been compensating for quite some time ever seldom direct contact between people. This conflict between our reality – the one that we see and feel around ourselves – and the “appealing” virtual reality is perhaps summarized in a sentence from the Martix movie. When Morpheus, leader of the people’s resistance against the machines, welcomes just “awaken” hero Neo with the following words:” Welcome to the desert of the real.” Precisely for this reason, one question should rightly alarm the public, and that is whether we, as a civilization, will truly be ready for some, completely new “reality”?
