What are the downsides of the metaverse
In this post we are to look at the the seven downsides everyone
should know about when it comes to the metaverse.
so the metaverse is this more immersive the next version of
the internet,
where we use technology like augmented & virtual reality
to immerse ourselves in the digital world,
with all of this digitization come privacy challenges.
1 - Privacy Challenges
So we already have privacy concerns when we browse the web
where cookies can track us.
in the metaverse this will become more intense because we
will have things like eye tracking,
where the vr headset can see exactly where you're looking at
for how long,
so this is a marketer's stream but someone that is worried
about their privacy will be even more concerned about this.
we also see more monitoring of our physical reactions as we
link those virtual devices with our wear ables & haptic devices that
measure our emotions and physical reactions to things.
so more personal data will be collected and potentially used
by companies.
2- Protect Our Children
We also need to protect our children is again as a parent
it's super difficult to track,
what our kids are doing online today,
let alone in the virtual world where they might wear vr
goggles,
where you can't even see
what they're looking at the world they're entering,
so there are now processes in place where you can monitor the
screens using an ipad or phone for example to see what they're looking at and
what worlds they are in,
but this will become an increasing challenge I think as more
of our world moves into the
virtual domain.
3 - Health Concerns
There are now terms being used such as vr hangover and post
vr sadness,
that basically give us an idea that if we have spent so much
time in this amazing immersive world,
when we then come back into the real world it can make us
quite depressed and sad.
this will increasingly be a problem in the future where we
have more even more beautiful immersive worlds.
also it will lead to more cyber addiction,
we already have this today where lots of kids spend far too
much time on online games in the future when these beautiful immersive worlds
exist it would become even a greater problem.
4 - Access Inequality
In order to use augmented reality we need the latest uh
smartphones and handsets,
in order to use virtual reality we need the latest headsets
and really good connectivity.
this will be a challenge to really give everyone across the
world equal access to this,
because people with more money and those people living in
more advanced worlds will clearly have better access to these services.
5 - Regulatory challenges
Will introduce new gray areas so for example can a virtual
act be a crime,
I believe it can because in the metaverse if you're for
example on vr and you're wearing a haptic suit where you can feel the touch
from someone else,
this person then inappropriately touches someone else how is
this different from the real world.
so we will have more of these regulatory challenges that
need to be addressed in the future.
6 - Desensitization
Desensitization might
become an issue because we are now entering these real worlds,
if you are playing a very violent game and you can feel
touch and make it it makes it very real,
this will exceed what we are having in video games today,
where it almost feels as if you're doing things for real if you're
trying to kill someone else or strangling someone else,
i believe there's a real risk that could desensitize people
and make,
it much easier for them to replicate some of those behaviors
in the real world.
7- Identity hacking
Especially the use of deep fakes because in the virtual
world we will be using our avatars,
if someone has access to it they could basically simulate to
be us,
this will make it much easier for people to hack your avatar
steal it and pretend to be you,
for us again what we need to do in the metaverse is finding ways of verifying people's identity.
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