The Metaverse’s Disruptive Impact on Cultural Experience: The Aquarium of Paris and its Jellyfish NFT Collection (2/2)

18

October

2023

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In the last post, I talked about the aquarium de Paris and their jellyfish NFT collection. In this post the focus will be more on the interaction between the creator and the consumer, and I will share my thoughts on how I think emerging technologies can help cultural experiences reach more people and increase engagement.

As mentioned in the last post, people can buy the jellyfish NFT’s. By owning these NFTs they can be more educated on jellyfish as the NFTs are scientific replicas of the real jellyfish project (Aquarium de Paris – Metaseum, n.d.). Additionally, the NFTs also have perks to them such as unlimited and free access to the aquarium and in-store discounts. Additionally they are invited to VIP events and earn access and invitation to events such as the arrival of the polyps of the purchased species or to the establishments night club (Desk, 2022). All of these initiatives makes it possible to create a web3 community for people interested in the marine world, web3, and art enthusiasts. This way, the aquarium is able to interact more with their visitors and create a strong community. They even take this to a next level by opening their doors in the near future in the metaverse (Desk, 2022). In here, there will be even more possibilities to let people interact with the aquarium and make the cultural experience more widely accessible (Gursoy et al., 2022).. In this metaverse aquarium there are no limits and visitors can swim in an aquarium, run through the corridors, or even interact with artwork (Desk, 2022).  

Personally, I think that the metaverse, NFTs and other emerging technologies are a great way to stimulate people to experience culture. A new community is created which is more widely accessible for people. Additionally, I think that people will be more motivated to learn about culture when there is more interaction present, as it has been proven that interaction is a great way of learning (Dahan et al., 2022). This can be done through the extra perks of NFTs, the limitless online world, but also through the learn to earn principle, where visitors will learn to earn crypto currency, which is reusable in the metaverse. However, I am unsure about whether this virtual experience can completely take over the real world experience of experiencing culture. Also, I don’t think the use of emerging technologies should be the goal, instead they should be the means to the goal of offering a wide range of people a cultural experience.

Sources

Aquarium de Paris—Metaseum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2023, from https://www.metaseum.space/aquarium-de-paris

Dahan, N. A., Al-Razgan, M., Al-Laith, A., Alsoufi, M. A., Al-Asaly, M. S., & Alfakih, T. (2022). Metaverse Framework: A Case Study on E-Learning Environment (ELEM). Electronics, 11(10), 1616. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11101616

Desk, A. P. (2022, December 9). The Aquarium de Paris and Metaseum launch the world’s first scientifically accurate NFT collection. AlexaBlockchain. https://alexablockchain.com/the-aquarium-de-paris-metaseum-launch-worlds-first-scientifically-accurate-nft-collection/

Gursoy, D., Malodia, S., & Dhir, A. (2022). The metaverse in the hospitality and tourism industry: An overview of current trends and future research directions. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 31(5), 527–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2022.2072504

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VR Dating: More or Less Superficial?

13

October

2022

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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].

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Diving into an Infinite Workplace

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October

2022

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How VR will shift our work routine

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a widespread shift in work routines from physical spaces to digital remote spaces. While this undoubtedly mitigated the spread of the virus, it also unexpectedly increased employee productivity, according to research (Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington, 2020). This effect came mostly from employees turning physical commuting time into fruitful working time at home. Now that the pandemic-mitigation measures have been (nearly) ultimately lifted, organizations are carefully evaluating their next steps ˗ stay fully online, implement a hybrid working model or completely return to the physical workplace. While the positive effects on productivity might suggest that staying online is the way to go, organizations fear that the current digital tools that facilitate such an approach do not provide the employee with an authentic connection to their workmates. However, the rapid development of Virtual Reality (VR) might be a solution to this dilemma.

The past few years have been the bottom line for an explosion in mainstream adoption of VR technology, which has been boosted by the recent hype that the Metaverse has caused. Accordingly, organizations look upon the developments of VR favourably. In essence, the implementation of VR technology as an enabler of remote communication would allow the creation of digital immersive workspaces, replicating the physical office in the virtual world. This could make employees feel as if they were in the same location as their teammates and grasp the workplace experience, while still enjoying all the features of digital collaboration (Murray, 2022). Such a space would work as a creation and collaboration platform where the possibilities are infinite from deeply interactive group meetings to real-time product prototyping and co-edition. Additionally, the immersive nature of VR would make workers perceptually ‘leave’ their homes and ‘enter’ the workplace without factually leaving their houses.
As this possibility gains momentum, several tech organizations have taken the first steps by developing promising virtual workspace VR platforms. Meta seems to be the one leading the race with the development of Infinite Office, a digital collaboration platform meant to replicate the physical office in the Metaverse. This space allows the employee to define the boundaries of their virtual office through a complete customization and availability of a wide range of tools that can improve their output and productivity (Chakraborty, 2022).

The implementation of such technology within the workplace is still relatively far considering several potential drawbacks that developers and organizations must carefully evaluate. Substantially, business data privacy continues to be a great concern for organizations, which must ensure the digitalization of their operations does not compromise their confidentiality. Additionally, employee mental health is a delicate issue to be assessed in this regard. A fundamental replacement of physical connections between the workforce might undermine the value obtained from real-world interactions between employees (Giusino & Toscano, 2021). But if this new virtual world is to arrive, organizations will have to cautiously adapt to this revolution and try to create a win-win situation between them and their employees.

References

Chakraborty, K. (2022, August 23). The Future of Remote Work: 7 Technologies to Watch. Techopedia.com. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.techopedia.com/the-future-of-remote-work-7-technologies-to-watch/2/34559

Giusino, D., Bowman, N., & Toscano, F. (2021, July 28). Work From Home (WFH) During COVID-19: Is Virtual Reality (VR) a New Solution to New Problems? Journal of Occupational &Amp; Environmental Medicine, 63(10), e755–e756. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000002339

Murray, A. (2022, April 4). Inside an “infinite” workspace: What it’s like to do your job completely in VR. ZDNET. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.zdnet.com/article/inside-an-infinite-workspace-what-its-like-to-do-your-job-completely-in-vr/

Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington. (2020b, November 16). “Working” Remotely? Selection, Treatment, And the Market Provision of Remote Work. Harvard University. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/eharrington/files/harrington_jmp_working_remotely.pdf

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Why and how should Metaverse ethics be established promptly?

9

October

2022

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Even though we do not have the Metaverse yet, the ethical rules which accompany its implementation should be created and set as standard as soon as possible. Shaping the ethics of the Metaverse is especially vital since we will not encounter 1 single platform, but rather many of them, each of them having a different vision for designing our virtual reality. Based on early experiments with digital environments, we can expect a significant number of bullying/ harassing incidents, if no regulation is implemented as to the Metaverse ethics.

What should be prevented, is the self-regulation in form of internal ethical boards which was applied in the case of AI technology. In my opinion, we can not expect that companies that create “independent” ethical boards within the company truly have the public interest in mind. Rather, they likely won’t address issues (such as enforcing racial biases through AI) in ways that would harm their financial condition, with Facebook as an example of a company that could substantially limit the abuses on the platform with AI, but will not do so, since it would mean decreased user engagement on the platform. Thus, we can not trust that the companies themselves will address an ethical implementation of Metaverse since it is likely to collide with their financial profit.

The issue of ethics in the Metaverse should be addressed by an independent, worldwide board, which would introduce an effective oversight, taking into account the security and privacy of the Metaverse users’. In contrast to the AI being mostly governed by soft law (ethical guidelines, which don’t legally bind organizations), Metaverse should, in my opinion, be governed by hard law, as it is even more threatening to users’ privacy and safety (Jobin et al., 2019). The question, however, remains: would countries agree to adopt the hard law? And wouldn’t it limit the development of Metaverse?

Sources:

Jobin, A., Ienca, M. and Vayena, E., 2019. The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(9).

Entsminger, J., 2022. Who will establish Metaverse ethics?. Project Syndicate. Available at: https://bit.ly/3Mhnnlk  (Accessed: 9th October 2022).

TechDesk, 2022.  8 things you can’t do in the metaverse: A look into this new virtual world. TheIndianEpress.Available at: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/crypto/8-things-you-cant-do-in-the-metaverse-a-look-into-this-new-virtual-world-8156570/ (Accessed: 8th October 2022).

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Investments in web3 and the Metaverse. Risk, opportunities and managerial implications

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October

2022

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Let’s begin with what really drives choices in the business world: numbers. The annual  “Follow the Money” report, published by Bocconi’s Digital Enterprise Value and Organization Lab, showcases that the two concepts underlying the new evolution of the internet, the Metaverse and the web3, are able to attract not only media attention, but also substantial financial investments. 

Globally, companies and start-ups operating on Metaverse technologies attracted over $430 million in investments in the last quarter of 2021 alone, compared to a total of 11 million in 2020. 83 percent of investments in 2021 concentrate starting from the month of October, in conjunction with the rebranding of Facebook in Meta. At the same time, since the two issues are often linked in the managerial discussion, an investment trend has started in companies specialised in web3 technologies which has seen a growth of 142 percent between the whole of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, reaching over 380 million of dollars from January to March 2022, against the total 157 million of the previous year.

But where are these investments headed? Capturing the attention of investors in the Early Stage, Seed and ICO (Initial Coin Offering) phases are Metaverse companies such as NAVER Z, a platform for designing 3D worlds, filling them with virtual objects and launching live streams to interact between users; or Inworld AI, a platform for the creation of avatars and characters driven by artificial intelligence; or Space, a platform that combines digital commerce and socialisation according to the immersive experiential paradigms of the Metaverse. On the web3 front, interest shifts to a more infrastructural layer of technologies, with companies such as Mina, The Graph and QuickNode committed to building scalable protocols to lay the foundations for the new web.

Dwelling on the current managerial debate, an obvious problem is that the concepts of Metaverse and web3 now tend to be superimposed and used interchangeably to characterise the current evolutionary phase of the internet. Seeing the web3 as a new phase of the web – after the birth and growth of the internet (eighties and nineties) and the affirmation of web 2.0 paradigms (from 2004 to today) and placing the immersive virtual worlds of the Metaverse in the new meaning – represents however, an oversimplification, which can lead companies to overestimate some opportunities, as well as underestimate some risks. Opening an immersive virtual space on Roblox, the reference platform for the Alpha generation, does not necessarily mean entering the web3, just as buying an NFT does not make us citizens of the Metaverse. To better understand how the two technological concepts are linked and can be exploited, individually or in association, as well as what risks can derive from them, it is good to focus on their respective definitions and, above all, on the value that each can bring.

The term Metaverse was coined by Neal Stephenson in the novel Snow Crash in 1992 to indicate a three-dimensional space within which individuals can move, share experiences and interact through personalised avatars. To date, the term Metaverse is used to indicate, in a broader sense, an interactive, advanced and immersive experience, in which users can socialise, receive professional training, play, take lessons, participate in meetings, have cultural experiences and much more. other. There are many technologies that enable this type of experience – for example, advanced virtual graphics, computer vision, and data analytics. Of all, without a doubt, a fundamental role is played by virtual reality (or VR) which enables immersive accessibility to these new virtual worlds.

The term web3 was coined in 2014 by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and developer of Polkadot. The web3 aims to become a new decentralised internet network thanks to the use of the blockchain, the technological infrastructure on which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are based. In the web3 the data would no longer reside on a network of centralised servers, but would be spread evenly throughout the network. This need arises from very pragmatic evidence.

Currently, the information exchanged via the internet is tracked by some well known tech-giants (especially by the famous GAFA-Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) and the levels of privacy guaranteed to users are very limited. Having a more open and democratic web available is the driving force that pushes many techno-utopians to focus on the web3. A cyberspace that should restore to the internet that nature of an open, uncontrollable and accessible to all environment, dusting off the initial promises of the nineties, then broken in an oligarchic structure controlled by well-known actors.

The implications of these initial reflections for companies and managers facing these issues are many. Above all, it is necessary that the initial evaluations of new use cases linked to these paradigms take place precisely on the guidelines of the decentralisation level of the infrastructure (web3) and the level of immersion of the experience (Metaverso), weighing these characteristics on the basis of company objectives and the needs of target users. There is currently no prevailing approach, it will be quite interesting to see which logics will assert themselves in the coming years.

However, it must be said that the benefits of an immersive experience or a decentralised infrastructure correspond to risks. In the case of decentralisation, the risks arise mainly from limited scalability and the absence of governance and control. For immersion, it should not be forgotten that the level of maturity of the enabling technologies, VR above all, is still evolving and not completely adequate to support the long-term vision of many use cases.

These considerations must help us to avoid a repetition of what happened in the 2000s with the Second Life experiment, which, after an initial moment of euphoria, was greatly reduced due to the lack of a strong purpose of the project capable of intercept real needs of users.

References

Minevich, M. (2022) The metaverse and WEB3 creating value in the future Digital Economy, Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markminevich/2022/06/17/the-metaverse-and-web3-creating-value-in-the-future-digital-economy/?sh=4a5bf51f7785 (Accessed: October 9, 2022). 

Blockchain and the Metaverse Boost Startup Investments (2022) SDAB. Available at: https://www.sdabocconi.it/en/news/blockchain-and-the-metaverse-boost-startup-investments (Accessed: October 9, 2022).

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Web 3.0 Looks Good On You

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October

2022

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Can the Metaverse change fashion as we know it?

The emergence of immersive interaction spaces is transforming digital environments into outstandingly collaborative and sensorial virtual worlds. Such potential levels of engagement presented by the future Metaverse are opening the door to a new era of fashion. Brands and designers are accordingly making out the opportunity to take their engagement with consumers to the next level and to unlock completely new revenue streams.
This new digital world brings the concept of virtual fashion to life in multiple shapes and disciplines where the industry can reach new cohorts.
In this regard, gaming is currently a major target for fashion brands, as it gradually turns into a near substitute of the real world where clothes are becoming a sign of in-game status (McKinsey & Company, 2022). Several brands are already partnering with immersive games such as Fortnite or Roblox by offering exclusive digital garments or ‘skins’ in the shape of in-game merchandise. In June 2021, a player acquired a Gucci bag on the game Roblox for more than $4,000, an amount that overly exceeded the price of the equivalent real-world physical bag (Gonzalez, 2020). And this is just an example of the new fashion wave in videogames, which is creating a new revenue stream for brands.
A considerable part of the enthusiasm about the Metaverse points in the direction of NFTs, as they can bring value in several ways that the fashion industry can utilize to their benefit. For instance, and more importantly, by utilizing blockchain, NFTs have undeniable proof attached to them of both the creator and the owner of the item (Joy, et al., 2022). This can solve the everlasting problem of authentication in the fashion industry, but now in the digital paradigm. Blockchain provides uniqueness and traceability, so brands’ identity is protected, together with their revenue streams (Gonzalez, 2020).
The rise of digital fashion in immersive platforms is also setting the scene for an emerging business model in the industry that plays a crucial role in the inevitable disruption process. Direct to Avatar (D2A) consists of the sale of items to game avatars or characters through the digital environment, and thus omitting all types of supply chain management steps needed to deliver physical products to a consumer (McKinsey & Company, 2022). Multinational brand American Eagle was one of the first to step into this disruptive initiative in July 2021, when it released a fully digital collection for Bitmoji, an avatar creation platform (Adams, 2021).
These and more advantages offered by the coming Metaverse is turning the fashion industry towards fully digital offerings and creating infinite opportunities for new revenue streams. This is especially shocking in an industry which has traditionally been sustained on physical interactions with consumers.

References

Adams, P., 2021. American Eagle debuts digital clothing on Bitmoji in creator-focused push. Marketing Dive, 5 August, pp. Retrieved from: www.marketingdive.com/news/american-eagle-debuts-digital-clothing-on-bitmoji-in-creator-focused-push/604402/.

Gonzalez, P., 2020. Digital Fashion In The Metaverse, Milano: Politecnico di Milano, School of Design. Retrieved from: https://www.politesi.polimi.it/handle/10589/188809

Joy, A., Zhu, Y., Peña, C. & Brouard, M., 2022. Digital Future of Luxury Brands: Metaverse, Digital Fashion and Non-Fungible Tokens. Strategic Change, 31(3), pp. 337-343. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jsc.2502

McKinsey & Company, 2022. The State Of Fashion 2022, Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/state%20of%20fashion/2022/the-state-of-fashion-2022.pdf?shouldIndex=false: McKinsey & Company

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Can The Metaverse Make The Real-World A Better Place?

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September

2022

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The metaverse has brought in a new phase of the internet, a digital world with endless possibilities and resources. Yet many people, including me, fear this new development. Is this fear justified or is this digital world the solution to the problems we have in the real-world? In this blog, I explore some of the exciting possibilities and solutions brought by the Metaverse.

According to many studies, the metaverse could be a solution to environmental problems. For example, the metaverse was discussed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) as an option to counter global CO2 emissions (SDG13). Because people are expected to work in the metaverse more often in the future instead of physically going to work, CO2 emissions will decrease. In addition, the production of toys, for example, will decrease (SDG12), as people can have digital toys in the Metaverse and thus no longer need the physical products (Allam et al., 2022).

The Metaverse can also help make society safer and better prepared for the risks of climate change. By doing simulations in the Metaverse, it is possible to better predict what might happen in the real world. For example, the ‘delta works’ from the Netherlands could thus be fully recreated and tested in other places around the world (SDG9) (Allam et al., 2022).

Besides the effects of the metaverse related to the environment, the metaverse can also provide a solution to the health-care and well-being (SDG3) of society. Because care in the metaverse no longer needs to be provided physically, it can ensure that more people have access to medical care. Mental healthcare in particular could benefit from the metaverse, as people are more likely to bring their mental problems to the table in a digital world. So a digital psychologist could work better than a psychologist in the real world (Usmani et al., 2022).

The last feature I would like to highlight is that in the Metaverse, is that you can be whoever you want to be. So you can choose your own gender and skin colour, so there is no racism or gender inequality (SDG5). This can be the solution for many people for problems they encounter in the real-world (Dwivedi et al., 2022).

These are just some of the solutions the metaverse offers us and I must say I am amazed with the possibilities it brings. Am I still ‘afraid’ of the metaverse? Yes, but the more I read about it the more I recognise that it could be the solution for the future. I am very curious to see what the future of the Metaverse will bring us! 

References:

Allam, Z., Sharifi, A., Bibri, S. E., Jones, D. S. & Krogstie, J. (2022). The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures. Smart Cities, 5(3), 771–801. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5030040

Usmani, S. S., Sharath, M. & Mehendale, M. (2022). Future of mental health in the metaverse. General Psychiatry, 35(4), e100825. https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2022-100825

Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, L., Baabdullah, A. M., Ribeiro-Navarrete, S., Giannakis, M., Al-Debei, M. M., Dennehy, D., Metri, B., Buhalis, D., Cheung, C. M., Conboy, K., Doyle, R., Dubey, R., Dutot, V., Felix, R., Goyal, D., Gustafsson, A., Hinsch, C., Jebabli, I., . . . Wamba, S. F. (2022b, oktober). Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. International Journal of Information Management, 66, 102542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102542

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Using Metaverse and VR to enhance education

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September

2022

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The Metaverse is a concept that was already created 30 years ago by fiction novel author Neal Stephenson (Momtaz, 2022). For a long time, the Metaverse received only a limited amount of public attention, until large technology companies such as Facebook and Microsoft started to invest heavily in this futuristic technology (Brown, 2021). Simply put the Metaverse is a virtual world which enables people to use avatars (digital human which can be freely created) to take part in social and economics interactions (Lee et al., 2021; Momtaz, 2022).

Many popular examples of today’s Metaverse are in the context of gaming and simple social exchanges within the Metaverse. However, it is proposed that the Metaverse in combination with VR technology could also be used to significantly enhance the way today’s education is done (Ragav et al., 2022). According to (Suh & Ahn, 2022), the use of the Metaverse in an educational setting can actually have beneficial effects on the performance of students. So how could the Metaverse for educational purposes look like?

As the Metaverse enables the creation of virtual worlds, education gets unique possibilities to let the students discover and experience topics in a more realistic way. Ragav et al., (2022) propose to combine the metaverse with virtual reality (VR) technology to let students actively engage with topics which are currently only demonstrated using books and short 2-D videos. Image a history lesson where you really dive into the past and can learn about the time as if you are there. You can experience historic events and be immersed into the historic world in a way that is not possible using traditional teaching techniques (Ragav et al., 2022). Next to experiencing historic events, this technology can also help teachers and students to experience realistic scenarios which are normally very complex and therefore difficult to grasp for students or simply not within budget for the school (Jensen & Forbes Technology Council, 2022; Ragav et al., 2022). The metaverse opens up the possibility to conduct for example physics and chemistry experiments, which are too dangerous in real life (Jensen & Forbes Technology Council, 2022). So how realistic is it?

In my opinion and looking back at my own time at school with many complex concepts which were difficult to understand using a book and short videos, I see a large potential of using the Metaverse for educational purposes. A higher engagement always enabled me to better understand the topics that were discussed. However, I just think that the technology is not quite there yet. First, the required technology to create a Metaverse as well as VR technology is just still not realistic for the public schools yet. It is too complex and especially expensive to implement. Second, looking at the high hesitation with which schools implement digital technology, I assume the Metaverse will fare even worse than common technology such as laptops and tablets. Nonetheless, I am positive that the Metaverse and combining it with VR devices will be an important step in the future to bring education and teaching quality to the next level – of course effective strategies have to be formulized specifically for this new technology.

What do you think? Is the use of the Metaverse and VR technology a step into the right direction when it comes to education? Will it increase the overall quality of our educational systems?

References

Brown, D. (2021, August 30). What is the ‘metaverse’? Facebook says it’s the future of the Internet. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/30/what-is-the-metaverse/

Jensen, M., & Forbes Technology Council. (2022, August 24). The Accessibility And Affordability Of The Metaverse In Education Right Now. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/08/24/the-accessibility-and-affordability-of-the-metaverse-in-education-right-now/?sh=6eae95017f8f

Lee, L.-H., Braud, T., Zhou, P., Wang, L., Xu, D., Lin, Z., Kumar, A., Bermejo, C., & Hui, P. (2021). All One Needs to Know about Metaverse: A Complete Survey on Technological Singularity, Virtual Ecosystem, and Research Agenda. http://arxiv.org/abs/2110.05352

Momtaz, P. P. (2022). Some Very Simple Economics of Web3 and the Metaverse. FinTech, 1(3), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.3390/fintech1030018

Ragav, A., Noen, K., Lindahl, M., & Dohler, M. (2022, August 17). Metaverse education: from university to metaversity. https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2022/8/metaverse-education-from-university-to-metaversity

Suh, W., & Ahn, S. (2022). Utilizing the Metaverse for Learner-Centered Constructivist Education in the Post-Pandemic Era: An Analysis of Elementary School Students. Journal of Intelligence, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10010017

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Metaverse: a distorted dystopian future?

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September

2022

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Imagine being immersed in an interactive virtual simulated reality where you will be working, building relationships, and playing games. A science-fiction dream not far from turning into a reality. Fascinating you’d say, though, is it a step further to disconnect us from reality? This phenomenon is called the Metaverse, a virtual universe, in which we will be represented through avatars or holograms, and we can interact with each other as if we are absorbed in a futuristic game. 

The new paradigm will seamlessly blur out the lines between our physical reality and digital virtuality, combining various different platforms ranging from gaming, retail, and education, to perhaps entirely new experiences (Mystakidis, 2022). Technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence deem such an interconnected web of information and communication feasible (Lee et al., 2021). While the concept of the metaverse, now at its earlier stages, continues to be advanced and developed, it will certainly be the next disruption of the internet. In particular, as already more than 120 billion dollars, this year alone, is invested to further refine the infrastructure and technology (McKinsey & Company, 2022). 

So, how, for instance, can we imagine such a world? To illustrate, you have designed your own dream home in the virtual world, where you can invite your metaverse friends over to have a chat. They will appear virtually, in avatars or holograms made available through augmented, mixed, and virtual reality, at your home. You can thus socialize, but also do some business, shop, game, and many other things like in real life. To put it easy, it is essentially the same as living your life in reality, but without physical boundaries. Accordingly, it is living in a parallel world where you can create a life you have always dreamed of. 

But, isn’t it another way of keeping people detached from the actual reality of touching, feeling, and real presence in the world? I certainly do think so. It may have sounded quite fascinating, though if we look at the world today and where it is headed, I am worried that the metaverse will be creating a very distorted dystopian future. The new generation will not fully experience real freedom any more, when living in such a virtual world. 

What do you think, is the metaverse going to be a hope or doom for the future generation? 

References

Lee, L. H., Braud, T., Zhou, P., Wang, L., Xu, D., Lin, Z., … & Hui, P. (2021). All one needs to know about metaverse: A complete survey on technological singularity, virtual ecosystem, and research agenda. arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.05352.

McKinsey & Company. Meet the metaverse: Creating real value in a virtual world. (2022). McKinsey & Company. Retrieved 12 September 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/meet-the-metaverse-creating-real-value-in-a-virtual-world 

Mystakidis, S. (2022). Metaverse. Encyclopedia, 2(1), 486–497. https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia2010031

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