Image from Pixabay.

Facebook recently announced that they will be changing their name to Meta, and they will be creating their own metaverse. In Meta’s vision of this metaverse, it will include many aspects of daily life into a world of mixed reality, or a mix between augmented and virtual reality. The metaverse will be a virtual world where you can go to school, go to work, play games, and much more without leaving your home. While this may seem like a great new innovation, it could also lead to many downsides.

Many of these downsides are potentially detrimental to the future of society and how we will interact with others. For example, if we are able to go to school, go to work, play games, and do all of these things from home, this will heavily limit the need for us to leave our house on a daily basis. This is worrying regardless of whether or not the technology causes people to stay home all the time because it indicates that society is heading in a startling direction.

Another potential worrying factor is the data collection that could occur. Facebook is already known for collecting data from users. Facebook was already able to know many physical factors about the users of their app, including their preferences. This had led to  lFacebook personalizing ads to specific users. This is just with an app on your phone or a website on your computer, so just imagine the possibilities of data collection when you are using their technology with eye, body, and hand tracking abilities. They will be able to know almost everything about you and your preferences. 

Even though there are many potential downsides to the metaverse, it isn’t all negative. There are some aspects that are beneficial to certain people. For example, if everyone is able to work from home, it limits the amount of money that companies have to spend on work buildings. Another positive aspect is that it will create a new world for people to explore and interact with.  Users will be able to do things that they wouldn’t ever be able to do in the real world.

Despite the few positives to Meta’s metaverse, they are heavily outweighed by the downsides that could potentially occur. The metaverse is just an example of new technology coming out that will change our lives and cause us to leave the house less and less. Even if this specific advancement of technology doesn’t have this impact, it shows the way that the future of technology is headed where eventually the world will come down to doing everything from home and never leaving your house.