Metaverse is going to be revolutionary no doubt but that will come at a price and this time the price is something we’re already familiar with and many people will be willing to pay. My concern is that this price will have a huge negative social impact on our world.
Our civilization and technological advancements as humans have always followed an evolutionary pattern that demands that we give up a part of nature and our reality for a virtual personality. The metaverse evolution is not an exception as it will come at the price of us trading our true reality for a virtual reality experience which could be more appealing and rewarding than the real life one. Meaning that at some point, our reality could become an illusion and our illusion become the new reality powered by virtual reality devices and the virtual world.
This would probably end up making us all more of anti-social beings. This is a kind of premium upgrade to what social media already did to our world.
The scary part of everything is that I haven’t seen much discussions on the possible solution to this other side of the metaverse. Maybe this could give birth to a new business model later on, who knows? Or maybe I am just crazy worrying about a future problem going to be caused by a tech evolution that has more advantages than disadvantages?
But note carefuly, just like the internet has made us all shift our focus and attention towards branding our social life and looking good online than actually being branded and good in real life, the metaverse will do same or maybe worse.
I can expect that at the pick of the metaverse evolution, there will be a group of people (more than 60% of the world’s population) that will be hugely invested in been connected virtually to the extend it will consume 90% of their daily life activities, meaning the remaining 10% could be for just disconnecting from their VR headset to eat, take their bath and maybe get some real life sleep.
And of course, the advantages of the metaverse might outweigh this disadvantage, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any of the latter and I think the earlier we start talking about it, the better.
This particular other side of the meta verse is just one of the disadvantages of the next phase of our technological advancements.
Below is a brief analogy on how I think this other side of the metaverse would play out and cause damages.
Since virtual reality headsets are designed to be immersive, meaning they can simulate the way we sense and perceive the world in our everyday life and this helps in creating amazing virtual experiences that looks and feel exactly the same as in real life so the brain get trapped and not able to differentiate between the virtual and the real world experience.
This will become the best option
for people whose reality is tiring, less inspiring and maybe not what they want, in that case they can swiftly create and experience another pleasing and fulfilling reality.
The only thing more dangerous than someone who can’t get the life they want is someone who can create and experience the life they want in another world anytime they wish.
This process will end up to be extremely addicting and satisfying and if more people thinks that way and get addicted then this is simply how the other side of the metaverse could birth antisocial beings.
K.O.Bania
#TMBG
#TMBGiNspire
#iKnowYouWillMakeit
