In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s rebranding and the creation of the metaverse, a virtual world where users will be able to jump in and interact through VR.
In the July 22nd episode of the Vergecast, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his plan to change Facebook’s name and turn it from a social media company to a metaverse. The areas of tech that this concept utilizes are VR, AR, PC, mobile, and game consoles. Some uses of this idea are fitness, games, work, community, creators, and digital commerce.
Zuckerberg emphasized that the metaverse will demonstrate the “next chapter of the technology industry” and “what the internet could be.” In addition, the use of VR and AR are the “next set of computing platforms.” He also specified that the purpose of this idea is for people to “engage with the internet more naturally, not more often.”
Later in 2021, Zuckerberg announced the new name as “Meta.”
Exciting Potential
There have been many comparisons and claims that the metaverse already exists, including Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. However, Facebook is looking to make this an experience like no other with the implementation of AR and VR.
This is a very exciting concept in the realm of games. Many gaming enthusiasts may want to jump into their games and experience them firsthand. Oculus, which is owned by Meta, offers VR headsets that have been around for several years already and many gamers are already familiar with it.
People are able to design their own avatar for the metaverse from Ready Player Me. This includes the use of the uprising NFTs.
One platform that is gaining traction at the moment is Decentraland, which has already hosted a four-day metaverse festival and Metaverse Fashion Week. Another platform that is currently in its beta testing phase is an online game called Horizon Worlds.
According to an article from Business Insider, There are also talks about Disney joining the Metaverse with news of its approval for a “virtual-world simulator patent.”
The idea that excites me the most is music. AR and VR can play a big role in bringing the hype back to live performances, including added special effects using AR.
In the time of online concerts, VR gives music enthusiasts the opportunity to experience a live performance without actually being there. Artists such as Snoop Dogg and Steve Aoki have made their first steps into the metaverse, as well as Universal Music Group with avatar creations.
Kpop (the music that I almost exclusively listen to) could also enter the mix after reports of metaverse concert organizer Animal Concerts partnering with “South Korea’s Klatyn blockchain to deliver music concerts to the Metaverse.” The metaverse has the potential to add another element to the music industry that could excite people even in the remote environment.
Reactions to the Rebrand
Meta and Zuckerberg are in some hot water with the public at the moment due to Cambridge Analytica and accusations regarding the spread of misinformation about vaccines.
In addition, after controversies surrounding the Facebook Papers and a whistleblower bringing to light issues within the company, many people have expressed their concern about what it intends to do and why.
Following the podcast, an article from The Verge explains concerns regarding “how the virtual space is governed, how its contents would be moderated, and what its existence would do to our shared sense of reality.” There are many details about the Metaverse that are not yet clear, so many people are worried about it getting out of hand and the repercussions should something go wrong.
In an opinionated article from CNN, the rebranding is “to make the employees feel better.” Likewise, in an article from Yahoo Finance, Facebook is “almost certainly hoping it'll serve as a distraction from the investigations it's facing and the recent flood of bad press.” In a tweet from Senator Marsha Blackburn, she claims that Facebook’s name change “doesn’t make a difference until they change their habits of prioritizing profit over the wellbeing of children.”
While Meta may be trying to move past its scandals, history cannot be erased. With the discontent that many feel towards recent issues brought to light about the company, this may not be the best time to make such a big change without directly addressing those issues, taking action, and showing positive results of those actions.
Hot Topics of Discussion
Let’s go through some areas in which the metaverse could bring up some questions and concerns.
Real vs. Virtual
With the creation of the metaverse, the world will become even smaller and more interactive. The line between what’s real and what’s fake will become fuzzier and more difficult for people to see.
There is the prediction that “social media's woes will be amplified in the metaverse” (source). The intention behind the metaverse is for users to more naturally interact with the internet, but that includes the negative aspects, as well. Many people already have trouble distinguishing the content they see on the internet, especially social media, from reality, and the metaverse will only make it more challenging to do that.
In terms of how the virtual world would compare to the real word, in an article from The Columbus Dispatch, “there’s always real life, which also has communities where people meet, work and play. And in 3D, no less. The metaverse can wait.” Several questions come to mind with this topic:
- To what extent will this virtual world mimic the real one?
- Why would we need an entire new world when we already have one?
- Will and how can people find a balance between the usage of the metaverse, computers, phones, and in-person interaction?
There is a concern over whether “[the metaverse represents] a point in time when we live more in the digital world than we do in the physical one” and “will usher in a new kind of technology, one that will become necessary to operate in society” (source). If the metaverse becomes a necessary tool in workplaces, schools, and other aspects of life, then people would have to gain access to the metaverse and spend much of their time in the virtual world. This will make it more difficult to establish a balance between one’s digital consumption and real-world exertions.
Work and Education
In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s jobs and education have shifted online which is, in my opinion, a format that will not go away. Because the pandemic forced everyone to familiarize themselves with online tools and working from home, many workplaces and schools will probably still utilize the remote setting for meetings, collaboration, communication, and other operations.
An article from Yahoo News covered the annual tech exhibition CES 2022. At the event, Chris Stavros, founder of the AR/VR platform Makesea, stated that “he’s excited about how MakeSea is starting to be used in K-12 education across disciplines” and that students are “learning how to use this technology as a universal communication tool.” While the metaverse could offer an opportunity to connect with others in a more interactive way in a remote setting, it could be difficult to replace the in-person environment that children and teens get from physically going to school, working with their teachers, and connecting with classmates. The potential for educational tools in the metaverse is huge, but face-to-face interaction is crucial for children and teens to get the most fulfilling experiences.
Bill Gates is “certain that companies will ultimately end up with some kind of hybrid office return plan if and when it becomes safe to do so” and “believes that the metaverse is the future of remote office work” (source). If companies decide to acquire office space in the metaverse and require employees to utilize that space, then they should provide employees with headsets and training to teach them how to best make use of this new technology.
Security Issues
The protection of personal information is a big concept in digital technology in general. An article from Business Insider suggests several possible practices to help protect users:
- “Restrict how much companies can monitor you in the virtual landscape.”
- “Limit what exactly big tech giants can track about you.”
- “Restrict how much third parties can put content in front of us.”
- “Examine if Section 230 can apply to the metaverse.”
There must be settings that allow users the ability to control the restrictions and privacy of their personal information, which should involve both required and optional information that users provide, as well as how much data that companies can use for analytical purposes. Such a big leap in tech must take into account security to ensure that users will be protected and out of harm's way, especially for the elderly, children, and teens.
Design
Many design principles come to mind when thinking of how the metaverse will be usable.
- What will UI/UX look like in AR and VR?
- How will the metaverse be accessible to those with disabilities?
- How will the design of the metaverse cater to those with motion sickness or other medical problems?
- How will designers accommodate their designs not just for desktop and mobile, but for AR and VR, as well?
According to an article from Medium, the long-time concept of pages in web applications are not relevant in the metaverse, now “we are dealing with Stages,” meaning “your interface is not in front of the user, but the user is inside your solution.” The article also mentions several real-world concepts that designers must consider, including “architecture, stability, gravity, inertia, contact, collision, occlusion, and reflection and refraction (subsurface scattering).” Some other ideas are animation and math concepts such as 3D graphics, linear algebra, trigonometry, vectors, and matrices. To make the metaverse an immersive, life-like experience, designers are going to have to brush up on scientific notions that exist in the real world.
An article from Medium brings up a point about business and competition that the metaverse would kindle, claiming that “businesses would not be able to afford to not be on the platform as they run the risk of having their competitors taking all of their customers without a fight,” so businesses will have to “find out what their customers want with their services on the Metaverse platform.” The metaverse will be a valuable new platform for businesses, but they must know how to best make use of it for their own purposes and for their customers.
Another good point that the article brings up is that the metaverse “needs to be able to allow all kinds of participation to settle in” and “allow users to discover and define how they would want to use the platform in their own way.” Everyone is going to use the metaverse as a product for different reasons and not everyone is going to use it in the same way. Therefore, while it may have its limitations, the metaverse must be flexible, maintainable, efficient, scalable, and reusable.
One particular concern that came to my mind is when people are using VR headsets, they are not as aware of their surroundings. Meta must ensure the safety of users while they are immersed in the virtual world. A possible solution to this problem is to implement a feature that detects surroundings if someone were to come close to the user and establishes alerts about events happening in the user’s geographical area.
Users must be at the forefront when thinking about, testing, and evaluating the design of a product. The design of the metaverse is crucial to make it a pleasing and easy experience.
New World, Same Issues
Some real-world problems will translate and exist in the virtual world.
Sexual Misconduct and Forms of Harassment
First of all, it’s easy to sit in front of a screen, go online, and pretend to be someone you’re not. Many times, with certain types of media, people consider it to be fiction and that they won’t suffer real-life consequences.
An article from Medium suggests that this will apply to the metaverse in that “a prerogative of fiction is to provide us with the freedom to explore our dark side” and “VR is, was and continues to be designed to be non-fiction to human physiology and psychology.”
People may choose to do harmful things that they wouldn’t do in real-life, including the things they say, the ways they treat others, and the emotions they express. There’s no way to control what people want to do online, but some regulations must be in place so that there will be consequences and regulations for misconduct.
In December of 2021, Nina Jane Patel came out with a Medium article explaining her experience being sexually harassed while beta-testing Meta’s Horizon Venues.
While sexual harassment, hate speech, and other harmful content exists on the internet in the 2D form that we currently have, VR elevates those occurrences.
According to an article from The Hustle, a study from 2020 found that “those who experienced a negative scenario in VR reported more intense emotions, which they dwelled on for longer, than those who experienced it in 2D games.” Meta must take into account how the user experience will shift when in VR versus 2D.
In addition, the article explains that Meta has a Safe Zone, which is “a feature that puts the user in a protective bubble.” They also have the ability to “report or block bad actors.” However, “some VR players say they were unable to identify — and therefore report — players using racist and sexist speech.”
Regarding the incident with Patel, an article from The Verge explains that “the victim hadn't turned on a safety feature designed to prevent harassment on the platform.”
To further describe the safety features on the platform, an article from Business Insider discloses that the “Safe Zone can be activated by users if they feel threatened on the platform” and is “designed to stop other users from interacting with them.”
In another article from Business Insider, a spokesperson from Meta clarified that “Patel did not use the platform's reporting tools, allowing users to block, mute, and report anyone near them.” The article also clarifies that Patel said that “she wasn't able to do so quickly enough.”
(See this article from USA Today for more information on the legality of this issue).
After reading about this disturbing incident, I would like to know why the safety features available on the platform are optional. Shouldn’t they be a requirement? And if the designers decide that safety features must be optional, then can’t they be turned on by default so that no one will have to experience something like this?
There should also be restrictions on the actions that users can take to prevent them from sexually harassing others, such as not allowing users to do certain movements or coming too close to others. Again, these settings should be on by default.
In terms of a user’s ability to report, there must be a way to easily and quickly identify users, perhaps by using visible usernames and information for users in your area. The user interface must be designed to be navigable, straightforward, easy for users to learn the tools at their disposal. The platform could also provide a mandatory, non-skippable tutorial that goes over these tools upon signing up.
In addition, there could also be algorithms or APIs put in place that will filter or block content that is presumed to be harmful in any way, such as text content, videos, images, animations, movements, and actions.
Some necessary features that must exist on any platform are reporting tools, a helpline, FAQ, safety features, and resources for recognizing certain behaviors and where to seek further information or help.
No one should have to experience an unpleasant incident when it could have been avoided by the decisions of the designers and developers behind the system.
One of my biggest concerns is the protection of children and teens. Upon signing up, the platform should ask the user for their age. Depending on the age, there should be more filters, restrictions, and regulations for the user on the things that they can view and that they can display. There should also be resources for parents so they know how to help their kids navigate the platform and resolve any issues that might come about.
Inequality and Lack of Inclusivity
One of the details about the metaverse creation process that stood out to me was that “Facebook would hire 10,000 people in Europe to work on creating the metaverse” (source). Facebook is hiring people from only Europe? How diverse will this group be? Will there be a variety of demographics?
To create a new world you need input from people who make up the world. Also, for this product to be appealing to as many people as possible, it must be created with as many people in mind as possible.
Ideally, the virtual world “[centers] on equal opportunities”, but “for that to happen inside the metaverse, we need to ensure a level playing field of connectivity in the real world first” (source). Equality in the virtual world cannot be achieved unless it is achieved in the real world. How will Meta approach this issue when inequality is still prominent in the world.
In an article from The Conversation, the writer Breigha Adeyemo discusses how Avatars are “being priced differently based on the perceived race of the avatar.” Even the idea of just allowing users to create avatars that look like them is non-existent. If the technology involved with the metaverse cannot even do something as simple as that, then I cannot imagine what other problems will come up in the future.
Adeyemo continues to describe ways for the metaverse to be inclusive:
- “Regulation with teeth to keep Big Tech accountable to the public interest”
- “Design justice”
- “Social media regulations”
- “Better regulatory frameworks in place for internet companies”
I like that Adeyemo emphasizes big tech companies and the power that they have to offer solutions to problems, but also create problems. Inclusivity should be one of the top objectives for these companies if they choose to involve themselves with the metaverse.
My Questions
I still have several lingering questions about the metaverse.
- When will this product be released? In several years?
- How will this endeavor ultimately affect the environment?
- How will this affect people’s perception of the real world and to what extent will the metaverse take their attention from the real world (including all of its issues AND beauties)?
- What will personalization look like in the metaverse? What will the data science and analytics practices look like? Can and will they be ethical?
- Will people have the money to buy a VR headset or AR glasses? How affordable will they be?
- The production of the metaverse will take a lot of money, what would happen if Meta put that money into an issue in the real world? (poverty, climate change, education, etc.)
My Thoughts
As a developer, I always knew in the back of my mind that VR and AR will come up more often in the future as primary ways that people interact with the digital realm. Reading about Zuckerberg’s ambitions for the Metaverse solidifies my assumptions.
I can also see how and why this idea came to fruition, with the pandemic and all. Throughout the past two years, the world has seen a need for a riveting internet experience since everything is online now.
I’m probably going to give in and play many games on the VR platform and take advantage of the Kpop metaverse. This whole idea reminds me of the films Ready Player One and Wreck-It Ralph 2 where you can enter the internet as another world. The universes of these movies materializing in real-life is very exciting, but the problem is how it’s going to be handled and what Meta is going to do as a company.
I don’t think there will ever be a “good” time for the metaverse to come about, except until Meta cleans up its act and is upfront with its users about their actions and efforts to create a safer platform for them to use.
My prediction is that all of the problems and dangers of the real world will come up in the metaverse, as well. The way in which Meta handles these issues will be crucial to this product’s success, because at this point in time, with the controversies that the company has been tangled in, the whole world is watching its every move.
I also predict that many people will jump into the Metaverse because it’s something new and exciting. Many advancements in technology inevitably come with skeptics and doubters. However, this does not automatically cancel out the reforms that Facebook needs to do. Zuckerberg and representatives from Meta can say all they want, but until people see change, then the concerns won’t stop.
Touching on more specific concerns that I have, first of all, the metaverse should be an option, like how mobile, desktop, and paper are options, rather than a requirement to live. Also, even though people must wear VR sets on their heads, they should not let the new technology get to their heads and be able to balance their digital device use.
It’s up to Meta to create a good product and a safe environment, but it’s up to the user how they are going to utilize it. Whenever I get upset or frustrated when I’m playing a game, I just turn it off and realize that it’s just a game and I’ll be fine in real-life. The metaverse will make it more difficult to distinguish between fiction vs. reality, which is why users need to be able to manage their metaverse use wisely and avoid getting too sucked into it.
Conclusion
The intention behind this behemoth idea is to build an experience that people can immerse themselves into at a larger scale than what has ever been done before. However, there are still a lot of unknowns, questions, and concerns about this product and about Meta.
In the meantime, let’s all pay close attention to where this initiative is going and use our voices to express any concerns that come up along the way.
