Metaverse explained | All you need to know about Metaverse

The term Metaverse is quite in trend right now, and you might have heard about it and you might have wondered what it is. Metaverse is quite interesting and weird too because it is something we humans are not used to. Concept of Metaverse is a bit complicated and it is also difficult to understand.

I have tried to explain what Metaverse is in a very simple language. Also In this article you will know how it is going to impact our future. So if you are interested then let’s get started.

What is Meta?

Before knowing about Metaverse, let’s know about the Facebook’s parent company ‘Meta’. Many people are wondering that the social media Facebook which we use on our daily basis has changed its name to ‘Meta’. This thing is needed to be clear that Facebook is not renamed to Meta. As you all know that Facebook had acquired social media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp and was running and managing all of them as product of Facebook.

Since Facebook itself is a (product) social media platform, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook has established a parent company above Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp called ‘Meta’. This parent company Meta is now going to operate all the platforms as its products/projects.

Current products of the company Meta:

Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, (Metaverse in development)

What is Metaverse?

Now let’s talk about Metaverse, it is the upcoming project of the Meta which is going to be a Virtual 3D World in which we can experience our digital world and enjoy the social life in Virtual Reality.

As the name is combination of ‘Meta’ + ‘Verse’ which means ‘beyond this universe’. So Metaverse is planned to be another universe which is going to be totally decentralized from the real world and developed with Block-chain technology. Along with that it is going to be a 3D virtual reality in which we can enter using the digital and VR Gadgets and enjoy the virtual world.

So Metaverse is going to be a virtual reality social media platform.

What can we do with Metaverse?

Consider this application ‘Second Life’ in which you create your own avatar and control your character in a virtual world. Or consider the game PUBG or COD, in which you have a character, whom you control in that virtual world and battle for survival against other characters which are also controlled by other real players.

But in Metaverse you will just not play a battle game or anything like that, in Metaverse you will be able to explore and perform most of the real life activities such as Watching TV, Roaming, Shopping, Attending Classes or meetings, almost everything in virtual reality.

How you will be able to use Metaverse?

Well every technology has its requirements; even the games you play require some sort of device and hardware compatibility. So here are the things that you would require to be the part of the Metaverse:

1. (AR) Augmented Reality: You might have seen in futuristic movies like Iron Man, Tony Stark clicking on the screen which actually doesn’t exist. AR would help you experience such things in Metaverse.

   (Augmented Reality) Scene from movie Iron Man

2. (VR) Virtual Reality: You would the VR Glasses to see and experience the virtual world.
3. (MR) Mixed Reality: This will be used to combine both AR and VR. This is also a big part of Metaverse project.

So it is clear that to be a part of Metaverse, A Smartphone is just not enough and you would few supporting gadgets.

Metaverse Development

Not only Meta but other companies such as Roblox, Microsoft etc are also supporting Metaverse project to make it widely available and accessible to many people in a very cost effective way. Also for Metaverse development, Meta has made big investments and is hiring a big team for the development.

Also note that Metaverse is one big project and is just announced and this is just the starting phase of its development, so we can expect Metaverse not now but in some years.

Pros & Cons of Metaverse

• Pros

  For advantages you now have the basic knowledge by what we discussed above. You have a virtual world where you can connect with people and do almost anything, such as; you would attend virtual classes or office meetings in virtual schools and offices and do shopping in a virtual mall. Also talk and interact with the people in the Virtual Verse. And many other things that Meta claims to innovate.

  These things seem impossible but will be tested when the technology is actually available in the market.

• Cons

  Well Metaverse seems to be an innovation but this might have some demerits also. But in this era where there is so much craze about social platforms, almost everyone is on social media and spends about 153 minutes (2.5 hours) per day scrolling and doing nothing productive. Read this article on Techjury.net.
  With online social media, people are actually not socializing in real life. Socializing with people is one of the needs of every living being (mentally and physically).

  In such conditions I don’t think Metaverse is doing any benefits, this will only make people lazier, become more disconnected from the real society as they will only enjoy being in the Virtual World. We in society so many addicts; Game addicts, Netflix Addicts or YouTube addicts so we can imagine what Metaverse will do in the future. And of course Metaverse is a virtual world, so it will be designed as a beautiful virtual (Fake) world to which people will get addiction.

  Another issue is the data privacy; Facebook has been accused of leaking personal information and data of its users a lot of times. So such a big project like Metaverse, where people will be revealing their most private information, data security becomes a big issue.

With that said Mark Zuckerberg has also ensured that user’s data protection in Metaverse will be given priority and also there will be limitations so that Metaverse is beneficial for its users and not a hardship.

Conclusion

People Accepting Metaverse

Yes, you might be thinking of how it is possible and feeling awkward because this right here is a new and totally a different kind of technology and innovating thinking. In my opinion there are going to be two types of people for Metaverse.

One who feels awkward thinking how anyone can enjoy Virtual World. One who are excited about the technology/innovation

Well it’s the tendency of humans to accept the new technology. Just imagine 20 years back, if someone said that we will be studying at home doing online classes, no one would believe and accept that. But this actually happening and we have accepted that because of our need.

The new technology is innovated according to our needs and thus accepted. Now you might be thinking “why anyone would want to enjoy virtual reality? This is clearly not our need, then why?” Well Facebook was also not a requirement initially but was accepted globally, So Metaverse in the future is going to have a big impact in internet and social life.