VR technology keeps advancing, and it has been primarily used to develop and play video games and other forms of entertainment. Mark Zuckerberg developed the Facebook Metaverse in order to revolutionize how people interact in their everyday life. These technological developments are likely a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone is comfortable being in their own home and working from an environment they’ve grown to be most comfortable in. I also assume that Zuckerberg wanted to redesign his platform after all of the controversy over data leakage and content information. I have only used VR technology a handful of times and can’t imagine what Zuckerberg’s plan is to make the office space into VR. It sounds crazy or too good to be true, but it could be possible with how far technology has advanced so far and will continue to develop in the future.
I don’t believe that every job will use VR technology and the Metaverse as an alternative to in-person interaction because it isn’t a simple solution. The technology is complex. If companies start using VR for online meetings, almost every employee in the company would have to have a VR headset and have all the wires and sensors in their home in order to move around comfortably. VR is also not the cheapest thing in the world. If people want to use VR for more practical purposes, a somewhat good system costs anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Will companies cover the costs of multiple VR systems, or are employees going to have to pay for it themselves? Personally, I don’t think that would be the best approach because of the price range of these systems.
Many companies have paid millions to billions of dollars to purchase land in the Metaverse. I don’t understand how companies buy plots of land online; just saying that in and of itself sounds strange. I think the more technology advances, the less ethical it gets. For the past three years, the world has been facing disaster after disaster. This is another use for the Metaverse – it allows users to escape reality and avoid the problems of the real world. I wonder if this is how people felt when cell phones were first invented and became an everyday item. The concept of the Metaverse seems unrealistic, but anything is possible in this day and age. If the Metaverse turns out to be practical, people may never have to leave their homes to see or interact with people. If two people have VR sets and buy a chatroom or plot of land, they can simply see each other and hang out using VR. Why go out, waste gas, and spend money when you could just boot up your VR system from the comfort of your own home?
The more technology advances, the more people forget or ignore the natural world and the impact that humans and all of our technology has on it. There are already so many problems that social media causes, with unrealistic body standards, self-esteem issues, and body dysphoria. Who knows what problems will be generated if the world slowly shifts into the VR world. The Metaverse is a very cool concept. In the long run, I think it will be more of a setback for the human race rather than an improvement. I might be a bit too negative on this topic, but I don’t understand the practical application of VR becoming a part of our everyday life. Only time will tell how the Metaverse affects the world as we know it. Whether it will be an improvement to the world or destroy everything that we’ve developed thus far is unknown, but we’ll find out soon.
