Metaverse : Instagram, Snapchat and the whole gang will soon be old school
(A very simplified article about a very complicated subject)
I’m not a video game enthusiast nor particularly an expert in technology but I do know that we should all look at the Metaverse very closely. I have been making some research on the subject and I already feel like a dad who misses the old days and doesn’t like what he’s seeing with the fast evolution of technology.
So what is the Metaverse?
Well… to try and make it simple, the Metaverse is a place where virtual reality and real life mix together. But that’s a very (very) simple way to put it. We should add that it is a universe that evolves continuously, either by its creators or by the community that is part of it. We should also add that the metaverse can be used for many different purposes like gaming or social media. You will basically be able to put yourself quite literally into a virtual universe and interact with others just like in real life.
Degiday.com says that the metaverse is a massively popular virtual world experienced by users equipped with augmented reality technology.
As I said, this is a very simple way to explain it but if you’re someone like me who knows little about this kind of technology, this should be a good start.
Who creates it?
One or several members of the GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) will certainly be some of the first to popularise the Metaverse as they have already invested billions of dollars into it. We could also mention the big fish from the video game industry like Epic Games, Unity, Roblox and Niantic (Pokémon Go) who most certainly want to impose themselves in the sector.
We can imagine that like in many innovations, all these companies will start individually and when financial and technogical problems will become too complicated to continue alone, they will probably merge together. At least that is what Julien Pillot, an economist and researcher at l’INSEEC in Paris, predicts in an interview by Les Numériques.
So will we be using it?
The answer is that we will know very soon. Facebook has just launched Horizon Workrooms, a sort of very sophisticated Zoom call inside the Metaverse. You and your colleagues will basically join together in the same virtual room with your own ‘ avatars ’ and work together just like at the office. Facebook has invested billions of dollars and hired about 10,000 employees to work exclusively on the Metaverse industry.
We can imagine that all these innovations in the Metaverse will inevitably lead us to one day move our social media experience towards a world where our profile picture will no longer interact with others but our own avatar will. This avatar will have its whole life in the Metaverse, its own clothes, probably a job, sports activities and go out with online friends to bars, cafés, fun parks and concerts. The things you and your friends will be able to do with your avatars and augmented reality equipment are unlimited. It’s anything you can think of and much more.
24 and feeling old already
To be honest, if the normality of the Metaverse doesn’t come quick (Mark Zuckerberg predicts that we will all be using it in 6 years), I will soon feel like the dad that goes on facebook every two weeks to check his messages and not respond because ‘ I’ve got better things to do and it’s just for kids’.
The Metaverse is coming at a fast pace and I hope you’re ready for it.
