Metaverse Is the Wrong Solution to the Right Problem

Source: Pexels-Pixabay

There are lots of plusses and minuses to connecting with others through the world of technology. I have written about online pros and cons before.¹ In short, what is good about technology is that we can connect in real-time and see facial expressions. We can create models, plans, and data analyses in seconds that would take human beings ages to complete.

However, what gets lost when we communicate through technology is the feel and understanding of context, the depth of people and their lives, both literally and figuratively. Backgrounds and settings are limited and often altered. Being seen two-dimensionally often translates into being felt two-dimensionally. The other person is just a face floating on a screen.

There Are Limits to Video Communication

We understand that communicating only through video has limitations. The loss of in-person connection was felt deeply during the forced isolation of the pandemic. We found that lacking the option to be together in person, at least we had the option of seeing and speaking with others in real-time. Video conferencing zoomed ahead – more of us learned how to meet, plan, laugh, and even cry together online than had ever before. So, what is the next step? Is it metaverse?

Is Metaverse the Answer?

Metaverse is the use of technology to feel more immersed with others while still being remote. For example, like a video game where you get to place yourself in the action, metaverse gives us that play-action effect with family, friends, co-workers. We create a video world in which we all can interact with others in real-time – play a game while sitting around a virtual table, hold a meeting in an image of an office, watch a grandchild take their first step while pretending we are there. But, and here is my primary concern, it is still not being together in person. No matter how sophisticated we make the technology, it will never replace the feelings and connections of being physical with others face to face.

Today we see the desire for that physical connection. Coming through the forced isolation of the pandemic opened opportunities to be together in person, which is what people want and need. Being with others in person is the answer to building human connections. It can be aided but not replaced by technology.

Metaverse Cannot Replace Real Human Connections

After watching the rollout of plans to create a metaverse, ² I am nervous about the prospects for our technology future. Metaverse proposes to move us from screen watching to “being in the experience.”

But what experience? Not real-time in person. Instead, we can build fabricated worlds with special effects, representations of what we would like our home or workspace to look like. We can even create representations of ourselves (our avatars) that are nothing at all realistic. Want to be a superhero at your next meeting? Go ahead. You can create any image you want. Want your acquaintances to think you live next to the ocean? Build views of crashing waves cascading across the faux living room windows behind you. It beats admitting you live in a studio apartment that looks out over an alley.

The ease at which we can create unreal worlds and unreal personas worries me. What happens when we finally get together in person? Will we be disappointed in the reality of who that person is? Will we avoid those in-person meetings because we can never live up to our online persona? And if we stay in the virtual world without real context, how will we understand each other? How will we connect empathically? Those are my worries about entering the world of the metaverse.

Enjoy and Appreciate Technology, but Remember Its Limits

I love the positives to our lives that technology brings, but I worry that we will forget the shortcomings. Use technology to enhance human connections, not to replace them. I fear that creating metaverse risks replacing real-time human contact with animated interactions. Real-life can never be a video game.