The future or the real-life “Black Mirror”?
Soas you all know, the metaverse is coming thanks to Facebook. And of course, the memes appeared and there were skepticisms about the metaverse world.
I too still am skeptical. I took a lot of breaks from social media and sometimes even replying to people is hard for me lest it’s a very urgent matter. So what makes them think that I want to join this metaverse?
But after reading a few more articles and watching some videos and discussions about it, I think there are good aspects that we can take from this Metaverse.
Let’s start with what I intend to use it for:
Great for virtual meetings
According to Kevin O’Leary (AKA Mr. Wonderful), he said that 55% of his staff in his company don’t want to come back to the office. Many said that if they can’t work from home, they’ll quit and find somewhere else to work.
And it’s happening all over the world, many prefer to work remotely and it seems that even when the pandemic is over, this new habit will continue.
Now, with that said, this is where the metaverse will be helpful.
Personally, I have been a little tired of virtual meetings. Watching my screen for hours on end, and meetings just can’t seem to stop. My attention span diminished a lot and I’d drift off very fast. Even presentations without seeing anyone become so dull.
So with this Metaverse, I think this will be very helpful for all of us. Especially since I work in an international company where oftentimes there need to be conference calls with the people abroad, this new type of virtual meeting might be able to help.
Though I imagined it to be like the Avengers-style virtual meeting where you can still see them face-to-face virtually.
I might have this metaverse wrong with what Facebook or Meta is offering to society at the moment since it was more like Ready Player One world, but since it’s still in progress, this is the type I’d like to have the meeting so that we are not always stuck with this kind of reality.
But having the Meta have offered this type of technology could be more effective for all of us. It’s close to physical, but not really. Additionally, we get to speak with other people more face-to-face rather than people turning off their cameras and we can’t even see them, and presenting will be much easier with more hand gestures for others to see instead of a cursor.
The gym can become more fun
I admit I’m not a gym type of person. I felt really bored when I stay in the gym and stare out the window as I’m treadmills or weight lifting.
So I stopped going to the gym and went to the pool instead for exercising. It’s more free, fun, and I get to move my whole body. Whenever I go to the gym with my Dad and brother, I’d go to the pool while they go for weight lifting.
However, perhaps the metaverse could change that habit.
Back then, when WII was still a thing, there has been reports and news where older people were having fun playing that platform with their kids. Even my uncle was playing with me and my friends and brother.
Studies found that it can improve their elder people’s walking mobility and speed, muscle strength, and flexibility. Plus, it can help reduce mental health stresses.
With that said, if the Gym installed this Metaverse for the facilities, I think it’d be more fun and motivating. I won’t be staring at the windows or walls for an hour and have more challenges as I enter the metaverse while in the gym.
Furthermore, to increase interactions, the gym should install their own ‘multiplayer’ but not online. This is so that we are still willing to meet people face to face and invite them to play a game that is only available in the gym. Then, we can have a multiplayer party in the gym.
The purpose of this is so that gym will be a more sociable and fun place to exercise. This is what I’m excited about.
But what I’m not excited about….
So, I’ve spoken about what’s great about the Metaverse, but of course, everything has bad sides that we are going to face.
And like everyone’s concerns, I’m worried if this Metaverse is taken too far to the point our reality becomes a fake reality. That we no longer reside in reality but there.
Ultimately, I’m not excited if the feature encourages addiction of being unable to face reality.
Black Mirror and Ready Player One are the perfect examples of this world when the creator of the Meta took their features too high that people wouldn’t want to face reality ever again.
In short, Meta’s reality is basically if Social Media is real life. This is where I don’t look forward to it. Social Media is not bad, it’s just its features created criteria of perfect that we can’t help but follow it.
As someone who is into honesty, I’m not on board with a world where we have no choice but to reside in a digitally-driven electricity world. I have already got off the social media addiction, and I don’t want to stay there for too long lest for business purposes.
So if perhaps a tech engineer who is working for Meta reads this, that’s my only concern about Meta. And I’ll leave you with this:
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
— Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
Social media is already disconnecting people from even having a proper conversation, I can’t imagine what side effects Meta could do.
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