Bored of swiping and wanting more interesting dates? Perhaps a virtual reality (VR) dating experience in the Metaverse might be for you!
One of the dating applications available on this platform is called “Nevermet” where users can have a dating experience entirely in the Metaverse. Nevermet’s CEO claims to want to change the online dating market, where physical attraction is not the only factor that matters (Harrison, 2022). With this, Nevermet users can only use a virtual image of them (with any customization such as tattoos, piercing, skin colour etc.) for their profile. After a user is matched with their partner, they can decide to go on dates at an imaginary location on Metaverse’s VR world. These imaginary locations are facilitated by the Planet Theta platform, which operates as a social virtual reality where Nevermet users in matches can pick and visit any location on their date (Tolcheva, 2022), such as an apocalyptic wasteland or a restaurant underneath the sea.
The CEO also believes that more online relationships will be created and become successful in the future as VR technology becomes more immersive in the future (Harrison, 2022). It is also interesting to point out that a lot of things we do nowadays are becoming more and more immersive in the online world. Among the developments and growing popularity in Web 3.0, some of our possessions such as NFTs and Cryptocurrency, or our online persona that we spent time and effort to craft only exist on the internet. Some new dating apps on Metaverse even focuses on these digital possessions, such as “MetaMatch”, where under a similar objective of making online dating less superficial, users with similar psychographs based on their NFT possessions would be matched up (Buckler, 2022).
Some may see this as allowing users to connect beyond physical attractions, but we could also see this as a move from one superficial focus in dating to another. For example, would a date matching based on the type of cars users own or the shirts that users like sound as equally superficial as common NFT possessions? Also, looking at Nevermet, would not the virtual profile images still allow users to superficially judge each other based on how attractive they are online?
Afterall, we are still at an early stage of Metaverse development, some of these applications are not fully available yet. If the VR world truly becomes more immersive, a lot more aspects of our personality could be integrated online, and superficiality could be combatted in the future. Only time will tell, and the choice to either match up with someone by natural circumstances in the physical world, or by our online persona, is up to us.
References:
Buckler, N., 2022. Metaverse Dating: Can You Find Love Based on What NFTs You Hold?. [online] BeInCrypto. Available at: <https://beincrypto.com/metaverse-dating-find-love-based-nfts-you- hold/> [Accessed 13 October 2022].
Harrison, M., 2022. People Are Going on Dates in the Metaverse and It Sounds Very Strange. [online] Futurism. Available at: <https://futurism.com/the-byte/dating-metaverse> [Accessed 13 October 2022].
Tolcheva, S., 2022. Metaverse Dating: What Is It and How Does It Work?. [online] MUO. Available at: <https://www.makeuseof.com/metaverse-dating-explained/> [Accessed 13 October 2022].
