Explaining Meta

posted by Margaret Potagal

Have you ever read a speculative fiction novel? Perhaps Sci-Fi or dystopian fiction? Maybe you’ve watched The Matrix. Well, before you get excited, none of these things will be exactly the same as real-world technology. Yes, we can all imagine a world where we press a button, hook up to a machine, put on a pair of glasses or goggles, and suddenly we are completely immersed in a fictional world. As of right now, the closest thing we have to this is VR headsets which have a defining feature of making me stub my toe on every piece of furniture in my living room. However, Facebook has decided their next big business venture is making this immersive technology a reality.

Right now, the metaverse is a big buzzword full of possibility and excitement, but currently, it doesn’t really exist. According to Ibrahim Baggili, a cybersecurity expert and the founding director of the Connecticut Institute of Technology at the University of New Haven, it “won’t become real until people have a single location they can go to to get into in a virtual world they could live in.” Facebook announced in October 2021 that “the metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future.”

Now called Meta, the company is pouring millions into development of the real-life metaverse. They predict that it will become a reality within the next decade, and currently is akin to the internet in the 80s and 90s where it exists in a primitive testing stage. In order to give this new technology the best possible chance for success, Meta is placing a large emphasis on creators. They have set aside a budget for funds for entrepreneurs and entertainers as well as a “$150-million investment in immersive learning to train the next generation of creators.”

Again, just like the beginning of the internet, what we are imagining and what books have written about won’t necessarily be the reality of this new technology. However, Meta held a virtual conference this year to discuss what it could feel like over the next decade — from social connection, to entertainment, gaming, fitness, work, education and commerce. The company also speculates that “The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company.”