According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Metaverse — a virtual world where people can communicate, work, and play — is the internet’s future, as well as the future of his trillion-dollar company. It’s a futuristic dystopia.

Even though “metaverse” became a cliché when Facebook changed its corporate name to “Meta” last month, many are still trying to understand the Metaverse and if the future technological concept is something they should take seriously.

Many have scoffed at Zuckerberg’s intention to transform Facebook from a social media platform to a metaverse platform. Some opponents believe that by concentrating on the Metaverse and rebranding itself amid a public relations crisis, Facebook deflects attention away from the real-world problems it causes or contributes to, such as damaging adolescent mental health and spreading disinformation, and driving political polarisation.

Even some Facebook employees are worried about the Metaverse, according to internal business communication uncovered by Recode, as shown by questions posed ahead of a weekly staff Q&A on Facebook’s internal messaging network, Workplace. 

Others have noted that Facebook’s metaverse idea isn’t new; companies such as Roblox, Nvidia, and Microsoft have all created virtual worlds utilizing virtual or augmented reality technologies. Others object to the technology’s immaturity, pointing out that the digital avatars Facebook has developed as stand-ins for our natural bodies in the version of the Metaverse it has built so far are cartoonish, uncomfortable, and occasionally legless.

Even if these concerns and reservations are legitimate, we should seriously take Facebook’s metaverse investment. The Metaverse, according to Mark Zuckerberg, is the “successor to the mobile internet,” an invention that transformed our lives by enabling us to access the internet from anywhere and enabled Facebook to exist. Let’s say the Metaverse evolves into what Zuckerberg envisions. In that event, technology may also modify the world, shifting our existence from one physical to one in which our digital presence gradually substitutes our physical reality.

Not wanting hegemony: Facebook has stated that it does not wish to be the sole developer of the Metaverse.

“This isn’t going to be a one-company job,” another statement facebook issued. “To do it right, it will take collaboration across industries, as well as with experts, governments, and regulators.”

The company is investing a massive sum in getting this idea to work. It’s recruiting the aid of some of the world’s top technical minds, including virtual and augmented reality experts. While the timeline is still undetermined, we’ll almost certainly all be using some of the Metaverse to go online in the future. And Facebook is passionate about having a pivotal role in shaping and defining this new world, meaning that, even if Facebook does not control the Metaverse entirely (as it claims), it is striving to exercise influence over it. Consequently, Facebook may have a more significant effect on our everyday lives in the future.

Apple and Google, which design and administer the world’s most popular smartphone operating systems, continue to limit Facebook. Facebook/Meta aims to develop its own set of rules and operating platform in this new universe, which will very indeed depend on VR/AR headsets and digital sensors.