Change in technology is inevitable. And most of the time it is done for greater good. But at the same there are some advancements which are neither needed nor consumers are ready for such shift. Metaverse does sound tempting and exciting but is it what we need at this hour? It would make our life better or more dependent, poor cognition and cumbersome?
Let us begin by dissecting this term metaverse. Metaverse originated in the 1992, in a novel titled “Snow Crash” of genre “science fiction”.
The author of the novel “Neal Stephenson” coined the term metaverse where meta means “beyond” and “verse” means universe. And plot of this fiction was that metaverse was a small place in virtual world and the characters in the novel could go there to escape the dreary totalitarian system of politics.
No doubt that now “Mark Zuckerberg” the CEO and co-founder of Facebook got inspired from this tale and has started to bring this metaverse (a virtual place) to reality. The first step on the ladder was when he rebranded his Facebook as meta. Now he has publicized metaverse to be the web 3.0 or next generation of internet.
This metaverse is a biproduct of block chain technology. The same tech that is used to synthesize cryptocurrency. Also, it can also be seen as the cocktail of various ingredients of technology (Virtual reality + Augmented reality + social media + blockchain technology).
Metaverse is being promoted by various brands and some are even booking to buy real estate property or to open up stores there like Nike, Balenciaga, Gucci and many more. Legal tender there would be cryptocurrency, digital assets could be traded by NFT (Non-Fungible Token).
In metaverse we also have the ability to design an avatar, the way we would look in the virtual world. People could also earn by playing games or doing some trade. Privacy
Need of the hour?
No doubt, this level up in technology seems to be interesting and kind of a sudden plunge. But now the question comes, is this advancement in tech – what we need? I discord with this query. To enter in this virtual world, we need some gadgets.
We need high speed internet connection. the prices of all these items are at sky rocketing expense and in a country like India, not much potential audience could be targeted. Also, Facebook {now meta} is infamous for privacy reasons.
Threat to the Environment is of the server rooms. These rooms consume a lot of electricity, uses so much water to cool down the machines and generate a lot of heat in the process of generating continuous services. For example, Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
There are multiple problems that an individual faces. If the solution of the problem is not procured, then as humans it is our natural tendency that we would try to escape from reality.
Metaverse would be very engaging, addictive and distracting so people would feel tempted towards it and by ignoring the real trouble trouble would get doubled. Already cumbersome like mental health, lack of education, perfection, fake news is prevailing in the environment- so obviously this virtual world will turn this candle burn to curtain burn.
Also, it is rightly said that “when a product is free, then you are the product”. We have seen how much people are glued to their screens and are cautious about their public image in the dummy socials. So much stress, anxiety and tension for attention of people, of those people they don’t know about.
And according to research of year 2020, these individuals don’t get trapped by themselves- but because the interface of such applications is made as such. So, the business model of these dimensions is that how much time the consumer spends there.
After leafing through so many of the good, the bad and the ugly side of metaverse. So, in conclusion I would say that we are not ready for metaverse. A world by the name, which means not real.
Even though it would take time from 5 to 10 years to develop and improve. But it is not a need and benisons of it are not so many. It could be proved as detrimental for young generation, with subject to their holistic development.
So, neither for young generation we need this nor it would bring psychological peace or improvement to adults, similarly it would harm the environment and deplete the natural resources. In my opinion, researchers should focus on augmented reality (reality + some virtual tools) as it could be utilized by all for greater use.
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