The metaverse is a digital universe. You can enter the metaverse through the internet. People can move, talk, and play in the metaverse. It feels like a video game, but more real. People use avatars in the metaverse. An avatar is a digital representation of you. In this digital world, you can walk, shop, meet friends, or even go to school. It feels like being in a movie or dreaming, but it’s all powered by computers.
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How it Works
For the metaverse, you need special tools to get into it. This could be a VR (Virtual Reality) headset, smart glasses, or even just a computer. With these tools, you can immerse yourself into a 3D environment. You can turn your head and look around. You can even use your hands to pick up objects. Many different platforms can take you to the metaverse. Some of the popular names include Decentraland, Roblox, and Horizon Worlds. These platforms enable users to create locations, games, and events.
More Than Gaming
People originally used the metaverse to have fun, but it has grown to actually be much more than games. People attend meetings in 3D offices, teachers are offering classes to students sitting a world apart, artists are hosting virtual concerts, and shops are selling clothes for avatars to wear. The metaverse is becoming a fully digital world that combines social lives, education, shopping, and work.
Why Are Big Companies Interested?
Big tech companies see the metaverse as the future. Facebook even changed its name to Meta. Other companies are investing billions in the metaverse, they want to create a better metaverse with better tools, spaces, and experiences.
They believe that people will be spending a lot more of their time in the metaverse, they want to do this by building the new internet.
The Psychology of Digital Identity
In the metaverse, people make avatars that may look like them or might look completely different. Some people make their avatars taller, bigger, and more colors and some people change their clothes and styles every single day.
Psychologists say this helps people express parts of themselves they wished they had explored, and some people feel confident as their avatars and some people feel safe sharing their views and thoughts as their avatars. The metaverse allows space to explore identity with not a lot of consequences.
How the Brain Responds to Virtual Space
The brain is able to respond to virtual spaces very quickly. When you spend enough time in the metaverse, your brain will treat being there in the same way as if it were real – which certainly has implications for how we experience emotions. You can feel happiness, fear, and sadness in the same way you can in the real world.
Psychologists are examining how the brain’s relationship with the metaverse affects behavior how the metaverse could be a useful tool for mental health, how there could be negative effects, particularly from over-exposure to the metaverse, and the potential for stress or confusion. It is clear, though, that the relationship between the brain and the metaverse space is something we need to understand better.
Learning in the metaverse
The metaverse provides a more interactive approach to learning and engagement. Instead of reading a book and learning about history, you can walk around a virtual history museum. You can walk around a virtual volcano or take a trip in space without ever leaving home. This certainly makes learning captivating.
When students can do things and see things, they retain the information better. Therefore, teachers utilize virtual learning tools and the metaverse to make teaching difficult topics easier. Engagement in the metaverse also eases the stress of shy students because they communicate through avatars. These forms of learning engage students and enhance learning for all students.
Shopping in the metaverse
Today, more and more consumers are engaging with the metaverse to conduct shopping. They are trying on clothes in their avatar, they are walking into a store in a virtual environment, and they can try on makeup or glasses before purchasing—all things that are fun when shopping virtually.
Jobs and Employment in the Metaverse
There are people who work in the metaverse already. They create digital clothing and build digital homes. They host events and shows. These are all real jobs. They earn real money.
Companies also have meetings in 3D rooms in the metaverse. Workers log in from home and sit around a digital table. This experience is more real than a video call. So the metaverse is changing how people use work.
Social Contact in a Digital World
Friends are meeting in the metaverse. They go to concerts, play games, or just hang out together. There are even virtual dates. Families that live a distance apart can get together in a virtual park. So the metaverse can help keep people connected.
However, the metaverse is not a replacement for real life, people still need face-to-face conversations, hugs, and outdoor walks. The metaverse is an additional tool for your life and not a complete life.
Health and the Metaverse
Doctors are using virtual reality to treat their patients. Therapists are using VR to facilitate patients facing their fears in a controlled environment. Some therapists help patients with anxiety by taking their patients to calming digital spaces. The metaverse allows mental health providers to be creative in their treatment and offers tools to personalize it.
In the future, hospitals may use the metaverse to offer more services for patients. For example, patients may be able to meet with doctors and not have to leave home. Patients also may be able to join support groups and participate in healing sessions.
The Metaverse has risks as well.
People might spend excessive time online, lose their connection to real life, strain their eyes and minds, and neglect playtime in reality, especially kids. Not everyone can afford the tools to enter the metaverse as well, and this will create some unfair gaps in a society where wealth disparities dominate and the rich live in the metaverse while everyone else is excluded from it. We also must insist on the establishment of rules, regulations, and protection for the users and their privacy.
Everything in the Metaverse is recorded. Data is being collected. Companies can see everything you like, buy, and say residing in the metaverse. This raises significant questions. Who owns your life in the digital space? Who owns your data? We have to remain awake. We must keep demanding safety, limitations, and respect. Fairness in the metaverse must be established for everyone.
The Future of the Metaverse
The future of the metaverse is not something that we have to fear—yet. The metaverse is still in its infancy and developing quickly. The real world has its problems: the World Health Organization (WHO) recently noted an increase in loneliness levels to 40% in the United States due to the pandemic—the metaverse may not be the solution to those problems; it may create them. People are rushing to join or become part of a metaverse.
New jobs, roles, and responsibilities will take their place in the virtual world. But, the unknowns are still great. Renewed questions exist: Am I spending too much time in virtual worlds or metaverses? Will I live more in the real world, or the virtual world?
We need to find balance with this today. We need to delight in the metaverse when we can, but we cannot forget about the real world. Technology should illustrate our human capacities. Technology should bring us together and enrich our lives—not dictate them.
