The Metaverse Needs a Reality Check
How a global crisis of identity is shaping a future where tech giants control every aspect of a consumer's life.
As someone in their mid 20’s, I can’t help but look down the road for the next 25 years and puzzle just where society is headed. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed by what I see. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a futurist. Maybe it’s a result of my anxious personality. I feel the need to analyze every outcome to feel like I’m in control. I hold no crystal ball, but I am aware of the possibilities, threats, and opportunities facing our society.
Continued political polarization, a worsening global climate, mass exoduses from impoverished and war-torn countries, heightened geopolitical tensions, and growing inequity of wealth across the globe are just a few issues that make me doubt the long-term efficacy of our society as it is currently constructed.
All of these issues are present in danger but meek in solutions. So you’ll understand the gravity of this article when I say an issue on par with the ones listed above is a global crisis of identity.
Identity is one of the touchiest subjects in today’s heightened political climate. Do you identify as a Republican or a Democrat? A woman or a man? A scientist or an entrepreneur? A ‘woke’ individual or a staunch traditionalist? From my point of view, it seems like many people are grasping at straws, desperately trying to prove to the world that their identity is special. Moreover, it seems that they crave belonging to a certain community of like-minded folk(which is only natural). I don’t judge. I encourage anyone to be whoever they want to be. The issue arises when we lose focus on what we’re actually here to do. It would be a logical assumption that the majority of the population has an innate sense to make the world a better place. The decrease in the power of religion and the church has made people more likely to cling to a label to define themselves. Well, what if defining yourself is a distraction from actually living? If you’re so worried about how the rest of the world defines you, do you lose self-definition? Do you lose focus of your mission? Too many people are getting offended by other people impeding their self-image. The truth of the matter is identity is fluid. If you are actually confident in who you are and not the title you bestowed upon yourself, you can recognize that if someone is trying to insult you or put you down, they are the one with the issue, not you. Acceptance is a trait of confidence. Discrimination and hate are motivated by fear and are, therefore, the actions of the weak. This is all to say that a slowly developing identity vacuum has forced people away from the real world to start new lives online. This has opened the door for corporations to take advantage. Facebook was first to the punch, stoking immense polarization and the basis for identity politics throughout the 2010s. But now, they aim to take it ten steps further.
To me, the more active you are on social media or video game streaming, the further from reality you actually live. I’ve believed this since I was young, and it’s really only gotten worse. I played three video games growing up. NBA 2k, Madden, and Call of Duty. I never played anything that thrusts me into a different life, like Minecraft or World of Warcraft. I’ve noticed that most games today are designed to be like the role-player worlds of the latter. These companies were onto something. People want a different life, a different identity; they want to avoid the suffering of everyday life and pay through the nose to live in a reality where they are capable of endless opportunities. I would argue that the real world is full of endless opportunities, but that’s the motivational speaker in me talking. What feels wrong is that most gaming companies take advantage of this fact, and now most tech companies are trying to get in on the action. Facebook’s rebranding to Meta is one of the most bold-faced attempts to take advantage of the identity crises. They will spend the next 10–15 years pouring resources into building a version of the internet that works like a World of Warcraft game. Why? Is this at all necessary? Part of the problem of the past decade is that we as a society have become increasingly separated from reality. Facebook is a corporation that is responsible for our current negligence of reality. They know the product they offer stokes division. They know social media harms the self-image and thus the self-efficacy of many young people today. It seems like the rebranding of Meta is a commitment to move people further away from reality. To live in a virtual world of consumerism, where you pay for everything in the real world and the virtual world, and AI uses the data Meta collects from you to predict you’re every move. All while median salaries remain constant. In no way is Facebook’s metaverse a net benefit to society. Facebook is pouring all its resources into constructing a needless reality that could be allocated to solve real-world problems. Why couldn’t have Facebook re-branded to a company dedicated to developing mass-scale climate solutions? The re-branding to a metaverse seems like it could’ve re-branded to anything. It chose to construct a world where it could take advantage of the masses. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the Metaverse turns out to be a net benefit to society. Maybe pollution is curbed to a more manageable level with everyone inside the whole day. Maybe the Metaverse actually does connect people on a global scale and fosters a more accepting global culture. Based on Facebook’s past transgressions, I do not consider that a likelihood. It opens the door for more corporations to see virtual worlds as a way to grab profits from the ever-growing population desperate to cling to an identity. Real or fake.
