On Thursday, the 28th of October, a very important announcement was made that turned the whole digital world upside down!
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that his company’s name is changing from Facebook to Meta, but this is not the only news that has made the whole world go into shock, it was the announcement that Zuckerberg and Meta are working on creating a whole virtual world, this virtual world is called “Metaverse”.
The metaverse involves a shared virtual space where users are represented by virtual characters. These virtual worlds continue to evolve and grow based on user decisions and interactions within the space. To that effect, it mirrors the real world in that it has no “end.” It’s just a universe that continues to expand as more and more users joins.
Here’s what you need to know about Metaverse and how it can affect our lives.
What Is Metaverse?
Metaverse is the place where the virtual and physical world combines together forming a different world that has a representation of people.
A person gets to have their own avatar in the Metaverse and will be able to fully interact with people; they can attend work meetings, play, go to movies, try on some clothes, etc. In other words, a person can do real-life activities in the metaverse but right from their chair in their house.
It will be a virtual reality that you can access through Facebook’s Oculus VR headsets. In fact, Facebook or Meta has already a version of metaverse called Horizon Workrooms, which is an application that lets its workers enter the virtual world to hold meetings through the Oculus headset.
If you like the ways that Facebook and Instagram seem to read your mind or listen to your voice because of its pervasive surveillance, behavioral data collection, predictive machine learning, and addictive design, then you are going to love living in a metaverse. It would, after all, add biometric data, eye-movement analysis, and a much richer set of behavioral cues to the mix that guides algorithms to guide us.
Meta’s Two Projects: Cambria And Nazare
Meta will launch two new products to give the full and accurate experience of the metaverse.
Project Cambria: Project Cambria is set to be launched in 2022; it is a VR headset that is more technically capable and more expensive than Oculus.
The VR glasses will have the ability to simulate natural eye contact and real facial expressions of the users. The glasses will also be capable of seeing what’s around the user in the physical world in full color, instead of providing just black and white.
Project Nazare: Zuckerberg hasn’t stated much information about this project except that it is a pair of AR glasses that will be roughly five millimeters thick.
Project Cambria is the newest #VR headset and will be more expensive and capable than Quest #FacebookConnect pic.twitter.com/t1c4vdvf1T
— Anshel Sag (@anshelsag) October 28, 2021
The World’s Reaction
People around the world expressed their opinions and reactions on all social media platforms.
While the news witnessed some positive reactions and excitement, some people created tons of memes and posted them on social media including the famous Elon Musk.
People have started comparing metaverse to the famous Netflix series Black Mirror as Zuckerberg’s presentation had a similar scene to an episode of Black Mirror, which is quite chilling, to be honest!
As for Elon Musk, he quoted the famous line from the movie “Matrix” and wrote it on Zuckerberg’s image.
In fact, what we can get from the different reactions is that some people are worried while others think it’s fun.
How Metaverse Can Affect The Marketing Field
Can you imagine each brand having a complete version of its business in the metaverse?
Digital marketers need to be kept up to speed with the latest technological developments. This includes understanding the metaverse and its full potential. What marketers need to understand is that metaverse is not just a trendy new thing; it seems like it is here to stay and is making its way to be the next big thing.
“Every brand and company will need a metaverse strategy,” Cathy Hackl, chief metaverse officer and CEO of metaverse-focused consulting agency Futures Intelligence Group
This can be a huge opportunity for brands and even companies to expand and gain more exposure. Brands, business owners, and creatives will have more room to be more creative. In fact, we might even witness campaigns being launched in this new virtual world.
The number of ideas that can be implemented in the metaverse will be limitless!
How It Can Affect The Work System
Metaverse was mainly created to help remote workers communicate more and be more productive, but will it actually achieve this goal?
Right now with the ability to do everything remotely through digital platforms, it already has made people struggle with communication and even getting out of the house! So with launching metaverse, what can it do to the worldwide community?
Metaverse will offer its users the ability to literally do everything virtually! Hanging out with friends, going to work, holding meetings, and every other activity you can imagine, all of this while sitting on your chair! If you have that, why even bother getting out of your house!
This means that there will be a possibility that many companies will transform their business to be remotely and communicate through metaverse! Also, instead of people physically communicating, it will all be virtually!
As much as this new virtual world will open up new doors and provide new opportunities, it can cause huge harm to our lives in general and to every business field.
Yes, as a business owner, you will have a chance of more exposure and expansion but will it actually increase your revenue with people and employees stop going out!
Share with us your opinion about the new metaverse and how you think it can affect the future.
