The Metaverse, which has become a trending keyword on Google over the past year, is not a new term: it actually comes from the world of science fiction and was coined in 1992 by Neal Stephenson (bestselling US science fiction author).
The metaverse is the new frontier in which Facebook wants to do business. Zuckerberg has budgeted 5 billion in investments to develop an economy based on advertising and buying and selling of digital objects. But he is not the only giant who wants to do business in this new sector. All the most important companies on the market are going in this direction. For what reason? The motivation is pretty simple, this new horizon of interaction will bring huge opportunities for earnings. But then, the question arises, what is the Metaverse? And how does it work?
Mark Zuckerberg during a press conference stated:
"The Metaverse is a persistent network of 3D worlds that expands in real time, returning a continuous sense of identity over time, in which objects persist, and holding memory of past transactions. An unlimited number of users, each with their own sense of physical presence, can experience it synchronously."
Let's try to get a better understanding of what this is all about, get some clarity, and get beyond these statements.
First of all, it is necessary to specify that the evolution of media will lead us to have our digital twin, thanks to which we will be able to live two lives at the same time. A "physical" and a "virtual" one. The Digital Twin in fact is nothing more than the virtual representation of a physical object. In the case of humans, this takes the form of an avatar. The Digital Twin therefore allows us to dematerialize a body in order to "copy" it in a digital environment.
This is nothing more than an evolution of the interconnection process.
The first digital media platforms were in fact forums and blogs, which contained mostly textual content. We then moved on to Social Media, thanks to which it was and is possible to share photos and textual elements with friends. The innovation was to enhance the sharing of photos and, later, videos. In particular, the latter have made their entrance mainly with YouTube and have "dictated the law" for several years.
Video is still a vital focus of several applications, most notably TikTok. Brevity is becoming a rewarding mode as users have little attention to spare, and this must be exploited in the shortest possible time.
The next frontier of media is definitely the metaverse.
The world in which the digital twin lives, as already anticipated, is defined precisely metaverse. This virtual place contains all the information of our real counterpart. It could easily store data while remaining alert and vigilant, since it is programmed to do so.
In this way, the movement of the 3D object would be exploited in contexts where normally this would be impossible: imagine, for example, listening "live" to the lecture of a professor who lives on the other side of the world, or a concert, or a meeting. Digital twins can all be in the same room and listen carefully to every single word for us.
As Zuckerberg points out, from the very beginning Meta's mission has been to help people connect with each other.
That's why the multinational company isn't focused on one specific type of platform, social networking; rather, it's determined to bring about social interaction between people who aren't co-present in physical space that is increasingly immersive, engaging and authentic, no matter what kind of technology will serve the purpose.
In the next few years, social networking apps on our smartphones may become as nostalgic a memory as VHS or floppy disks.