The metaverse is an incredibly mysterious concept. According to Wired, the metaverse "doesn't really refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad (and often speculative) shift in how we interact with technology."
One way that the metaverse can be accessed is through Meta Horizons World. Even after a year in operation, many people don’t understand what Meta Horizons World is or what you can do in it. Part of this problem comes from the limited availability of virtual reality headsets, but a lot of the confusion comes from the very vague advertising that surrounds this product. It’s marketed as a lot of things: a virtual world that provides a new way of interacting with people online, a new way to work virtually and so much more.
There's a lot that’s supposedly “new” about this metaverse. But what incentive do we have to even engage in this novelty? What benefits does this give us that we don’t already get from other social media or simply going out and talking face to face? More cynically, what risks does the metaverse have that we’re not aware of, and what dangers could it pose to our privacy if we’re not careful?
To explore this strange new world, my first step was getting a virtual reality (VR) headset. For this experiment, I used the Meta Quest 2, which came with a microphone to talk with others inside of the metaverse. The second step was getting a Meta account. This is a downside for anyone who isn’t interested in handing out any important information to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was famously interrogated by the Senate after harvesting and selling data from over 87 million Facebook users, according to the New York Times. Now, every Meta Quest comes with Meta Horizon Worlds, the metaverse’s premier app. This allows users to explore and create virtual reality worlds and interact with other users inside of them. These worlds are the main draw of the metaverse for consumers right now, so I jumped in to find out what the metaverse has to offer.
It's just VRChat. Literally.
VRChat is a game you can play in VR or on a PC, and it is essentially the same thing as Meta Horizon Worlds. VRChat is an online communicating platform that connects both VR users and non-VR users. The platform reached a record popularity of up to 20,000 concurrent users in 2018, according to an article published by Road to VR. Users create their own avatars and go into worlds created by other users and interact with people. VRChat also has sex clubs and other promiscuous content that doesn’t make it past Meta's censors, but the only real difference is that Meta Horizons World is accessed through apps for companies to hold work meetings and other benefits.
The worlds inside Meta Horizon Worlds can be separated into two main categories: playgrounds and social spaces. Playgrounds include obstacle courses, role-playing arenas and virtual worlds of exploration. Obstacle courses are similar to Roblox, a free-to-play game where players also make their own worlds to play games and socialize in. Role-playing arenas are worlds in which users can act as characters within a specific situation. Arenas include "Superheroes vs Space Wizards," "Kawaii Police Academy," or "Meta McDonald’s," all of which I extensively explored during my journey. Virtual worlds of exploration allow individuals to explore virtual environments they may not be able to encounter on a daily basis.
From personal experience, I can attest that playgrounds are almost exclusively populated by young children, which is especially concerning given that the minimum age to set up a Meta account is 13 years old. Now, as anyone on the internet can tell you, there’s absolutely no age limit that can’t be bypassed by simply lying. The main issue is that children, and users in general, are too naïve and often give away personal information like age and location to strangers they don’t know. This opens the door for potential predators to learn information about these children and start communicating other ways to achieve their goals. Meta does not extensively moderate its worlds and age restrictions, so the problem of managing children and adults in these playgrounds and social spaces is entirely placed upon the owners of the specific world.
Micahboii92 is a moderator for the “Soapstone Comedy Club,” one of the more popular user-created spaces inside the metaverse. He talked about the issues with trying to moderate the experience for different age groups, stating that it’s incredibly difficult to keep adult and children spaces separate, especially when someone can just lie to get into adult spaces. This isn’t a sustainable solution, especially for worlds with minimal creators or moderators to manage traffic 24/7.
The second category of worlds is the social spaces, which make up most of the app. These social spaces are incredibly varied and unique, ranging from comedy clubs and music studios to live, pre-recorded events such as concerts and sports. Some of these spaces are created by Meta themselves, such as concerts, and these spaces often have limited opportunity for social interactions. When I attended a pre-recorded Billie Eilish concert that was stated to have over 300 attendees, I only noticed 3 users, who were all muted as they watched the concert.
The social spaces created by users themselves are incredibly varied. There are music studios where people can freestyle rap to beats created by other users. There are dating spaces with romantic scenery and ambiance (I may have joined a space in the middle of a metaverse date), and even comedy clubs where people can perform stand-up routines in front of a virtual crowd. All of these spaces are tailored to specific audiences, with Black comedy clubs and minority-oriented spaces offering safe spaces for those who want them.
These spaces, unlike the playground areas, are split between children looking for somewhere to play and adults looking for somewhere to chat. These children often ambush adult spaces, which either results in children getting mass removed, such as in the Soapstone, or the adults simply leaving the area to find a better space to converse. This can often cause issues in these spaces, such as adults talking about their jobs or personal lives only to be interrupted by children who scream on the stage of a comedy club for fun.
“We’ve tried to help the situation by forcing people to agree that they’re over 13, as they’re supposed to be over 13 to use a Meta account anyways," said Micahboii92. "But at the same time, we are trying to create more events and spaces designed for kids, like our Soapstone Jr. events on Sundays."
Talking with people in the metaverse gives some very interesting revelations about how and why people use this app, but it also reveals some potential problems. Misty1983 was an adult woman in her late thirties who had just gotten a VR headset a few days before our interview, and she said that she went on this app because she, “loved the idea of meeting new people.” She said that there didn’t seem to be any real difference in interacting with people, and had a very similar time meeting and talking with people in the metaverse as real-life interactions.
theclaw000, a college student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just got a headset over winter break and was still getting used to the metaverse when he was interviewed. He liked the idea of meeting people from all over the world and over a wide range of ages, which made the metaverse a very fun experience for him. “Personally, I find it kind of scary that there’s so little difference between interacting virtually and physically. Like, I even had a dream last night where I was in the metaverse. It’s kind of creepy.”
Micahboii92 also mentioned, similar to theclaw000, that his experiences in the metaverse have bled over into his real life. In Meta Horizons World, when you raise your hands, confetti pops out of your avatar. Michaboii92 found himself carrying this habit into his real life.
“One time I went roller-skating with a bunch of friends, and I was super excited so I put both my hands into the air like you do in here, but no confetti popped out and I got super confused," Michaboii92 said. "Everyone asked what I was doing and I had to explain that I thought there was going to be confetti.”
The metaverse has a way of feeling more real when you’re inside than it’ll ever look in pictures or videos you see on your phone. It’s a world that you know isn’t real at all, but your brain becomes tricked into feeling perfectly at home there, and that comes with concerns. Whether it’s fireside chats with people showing emotional vulnerability or users pretending to be something that they're not, the metaverse creates a space where people can be extremely forthcoming in good ways and bad.
