Ten Ways the MetaVerse Will Change Your Life
The real Zuck doing his best virtual Zuck imitation in the Metaverse
A few weeks ago Facebook rocked the world by changing it’s corporate name to Meta. The announcement was more awkward than Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on live television.
Courtesy Dima Sullivan via Unsplash.
The new name portends a major shift, as Facebook (the company) yearns to move beyond Social media. So, why should you care? Because there is an enormous sea-change about to take place. And, this sea-change will dwarf the earlier introduction of the internet and social media.
So what is this sea-change? And, why is the Zuckster pivoting when Facebook is such a ubiquitous part of American life? Because, among the Gen Z crowd, Facebook is dead. Like, really dead. And, once you’ve lost the kids it’s over. For the first time ever, Facebook lost active users last quarter. Over 10 million users signed off.
Courtesy David Pisnoy via Unsplash
What is it?
So, what the heck is the metaverse? The metaverse is a conversion of your human world to a world of shared virtual spaces that users will be able to access via the internet. Get ready to meet the mirror image of your likeness. And, the digital, mirror image of your office, home and life. All accessible through your personal Virtual Reality headset made by Meta.
Courtesy CX Insight via Unsplash
See, until now we’ve been operating in a remote world. But very soon that remote world will convert to a virtual world. We are about to enter the era of the Metaverse, where everything, and I mean everything, is virtual. Where you can change your hair, eye color, gender, sexual orientation from day to day. And interact with other “virtual beings” in real time.
Each of us will soon have a virtual identity known as an avatar. This avatar world will compete with our real world identity.
This is my avatar courtesy of Meta’s Facebook. Pretty sexy, huh?
Stock Price
Facebook’s stock peaked in September 2021. Since that time, shares of Meta lost more than $500 Billion in value. A direct result of declining ad revenue. The advertisers and the kids are all flocking to TikTok. It’s a Social media platform that allows users to post short-form videos like pranks, stunts, tricks, dances and jokes.
And, once the kids are gone from Facebook, all you have left are pictures of the Grandkids. And, ads for Medicare supplement plans and Reverse Mortgages. See also, MySpace.
The Paradigm Shift
So why am I so confident about this paradigm shift? Meta’s capital spending will increase 66% next year to a whopping $34 Billion, much of it on Metaverse programming. And, Zuck plans to hire 10,000 new employees in Europe to focus solely on the Metaverse. Apple reportedly handed out holiday bonuses of up to $180,000 to it’s engineers in 2021 to keep them from quitting to join Meta.
It’s already starting. A recent John Legend virtual concert drew 1,000,000 eyeballs tuning in on Twitter and YouTube.
Courtesy Jessica Lewis via Unsplash
Still confused? Click the image below to watch a one-minute overview of the future. Prepare to have your mind blown.
Video courtesy of Meta
You’ll soon yearn for the salad days of cat videos and angry tweets from politicians.
Remember how cool this was? This is what 2021 will look like a few years from now.
We are about to enter an era where our digital life is more important than our physical life. So how will this new era change your life? Here are ten examples:
1. Geography: In the metaverse, geography is irrelevant. We are no longer human beings. We are no longer remote beings. We are virtual beings. This evolution started during Covid, when videoconferencing replaced the traditional methods of doing business and it’s about to explode as technology makes physical interaction even less important. In the Metaverse you can play virtual poker with your high school buddies. You can attend an AA meeting in a virtual church basement. You can walk through a home that is for sale 700 miles away, even though it isn’t built yet.
2. Work. In the Metaverse, you can compete in the global workforce and get a job 5,000 miles away. With a 4% unemployment rate and a global war for talent, you begin to see why employers are less angsty about having “cheeks in the seats” and more interested harnessing brainpower globally.
3. Gig gigs: As employers compete for global talent, jobs will become virtual. Employers will seek talent based on fractional availability. For example, I might work five different jobs at ten hours per week, for five different employers. Companies will fill a single job with multiple humans working together, comprising the full time equivalent of 40 hours. Doubt me? Ask your next Uber driver where else they work. You’ll find many of them have 3-4 different jobs and work when it’s convenient for them.
WRANGLER VIRTUAL STORE KONTOOR BRANDS
4. Fashion: last week The Metaverse hosted its first Metaverse Fashion Week. 60 of the world’s most famous fashion brands, including name brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana hosted virtual runway shows. These shows offered up “digital first” clothing and glitzy after-parties. But, only avatars were allowed to attend the events and purchase the clothing. You read that correctly. All the clothing was virtual, meaning that it’s made only for your avatar to wear in the virtual world. It’s not available for you to wear in the real world. makes you wonder if Homer Simpson is gonna start wearing Peter Millar’s Summer Comfort collection.
5. Relationships. In the metaverse, relationships will become fungible, including relationships with employers. In a virtual world, there will be little emotional commitment or connection to an employer. Employees live and work hundreds of miles away. And, that’s okay. This approach is a response to a covid, a tight labor market and the explosion of videoconferencing.
6. Speed of Change. Bill Gates once opined that “we always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. The Metaverse is going to flip that quote. The next two years will be the fastest change we’ve seen in the modern technology world.
7. The Great Resignation. By now you’ve heard of this term. Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers, 4.4M walked in September alone. Why? Because they can. There is an enormous war for talent and, frankly, the grass is greener-at least money wise. As more relationships become virtual, our commitment to traditional institutions (job, church, bank, etc.) will die. Don’t like your Pastor’s last sermon? Leaving is as simple as changing the channel. Everything in the Metaverse is fungible, including relationships.
8. Extremism. I think everything gets a lot more extreme. Because people can hide behind their avatar while attending some fringe political rally in the Metaverse.
9. Porn: I wrote about porn here a few weeks ago. The growth of “old school”, video porn is mind boggling. But, wait, there’s more. The “new porn” will be virtual and live. You’ll be able to (literally) reach out and touch someone. You can anonymously participate (or direct) the action by entering a porn scene as your Avatar. Yes, porn is about to get a lot more interactive and popular. Gross.
10. Real Estate: Virtual developers are actively buying and selling virtual real estate in the Metaverse. Sound crazy? Well, virtual real estate sales surpassed $100 million in the last week alone.
When I think some new tech will “never work”, it’s a sure sign that it’s gonna explode and change the world. I never though Facebook would work. Or video conferencing would become mainstream. But, here we are.
What do you think? Will this virtual stuff catch on? I’d love to hear from you. Tell me what you think, below. And, please do me a favor and forward this article to other folks who might be wondering about all this Metaverse stuff.
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