If you consider yourself as a tech geek or a gaming enthusiast, you must probably have come across the word “Metaverse”.
With no limitations other than its own rules and economics, Metaverse is the new vision, slowly creating a new reality.
Even though the term was first coined about thirty years ago, it has gained immense popularity over the past few months when big names such as Facebook, Microsoft and Epic Games showed their interest towards its commercialization.
Remember the times when we gawked through the screens in astonishment when bizarre sci-fi movies like “Ready Player One” and “ The Matrix” took us on a ride to an immersive virtual reality universe? Well, this scientific-fiction is somewhat similar to the dystopian future lying ahead and the answer to this is “Metaverse”.
A Metaverse is an endless 3-D virtual space - a manifestation of the actual world wherein anyone and everyone can exist in the form of their digital avatars, interact, work, collaborate, learn, play, compete and experience things with millions of other individuals who may or may not be in the same physical environment as you.
Metaverse cannot be regarded as a single product but rather a blend of a bunch of different worlds, alive and active. It is also considered to be “the next mega-phase of the internet” by many. Events like the Fortnite x Travis Scott virtual concert with a fully-animated avatar which gauged around 12 million viewers is a testimonial which shows that the metaverse is going to make space into our lives sooner than we think. While video games such as Fortnite, Minecraft , Roblox, etc have already integrated some elements of the Metaverse to enhance user experience, the social network giant Facebook has entered this race as well and has not just decided to adopt this concept but align it to its core operations by announcing that it’ll be a “Metaverse company” in next five years.
The notion of an alternative universe does seem like the “new cool” and is fascinating, especially to the GenZ but it’s also imperative for us to be aware about the concerns and risks associated with it.
In this digital era of ours where data is power, this integration of Metaverse into our lives will make our privacy more vulnerable as these large companies will have their eyes like a hawk onto every single move that we decide to make.
Edited by
Rimjhim Agarwal
Netra Menon
Kriti
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