Metaverse Explained for Dummies

The Metaverse is a space where you can participate in a shared virtual universe. A graphically rich virtual space, where people can work, play, shop, socialize, do whatever they want.

What Is Metaverse?

Everyone has their definition of the Metaverse and that’s cool and understandable, the Metaverse is a broad term that opens down new opportunities so we can’t say that it has that specific definition. But if I’m to define the Metaverse myself, from my perspective, it is anything you can imagine.

Imagine being able to be where you want to be right from wherever you are (Teleportation), imagine being able to be whoever, or whatever you choose to be, imagine being able to interact with your friends or family that are on the other side of the world. Imagine just walking down the street and you remember you have to order a birthday gift for your mom or dad, and boom, a hologram of a bunch of gifts appears right in front of you which you just have to slide to pick one and It gets delivered to your apartment in the real world and you continue walking. Ok, ok, your head should probably be already spinning by now, but one more, imagine being inside the Internet, crazy right, well, that’s the Metaverse. Whatever you could imagine.

The term “Metaverse” originated in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a portmanteau of “Meta” and “Universe.” The novel was written by Neal Stephenson and In the book, the Metaverse was illustrated as a terminal evolution of the internet, and as a kind of virtual reality where any virtual interaction can have a direct impact on the real world too. And according to Mark Zuckerberg at connect, he described the Metaverse as a virtual world that will usher in the next phase of the Internet.

The Metaverse is coming to make us feel like we are somewhere even though we are not, to make us interact immersively with others like we are actually with them, even though we are not. In the Metaverse, we can learn, play, work, shop, and interact with friends, everything all virtually and immersive.

Oh, I thought we were just going to scratch the surface, my bad. Ok, now we’ve at least gotten a picture of what the Metaverse is or what it could be like. But now the real question…

What Happens When The ‘Real’ Metaverse Finally Gets Here?

If you read the title of this, you will see I intentionally put the “Real” in the title, that’s because there have been some platforms that mimic the Metaverse, examples are Second life, Roblox, Decentraland, Minecraft, and so on. Some call these platforms the Metaverse, their perspective is that with those platforms, the Metaverse is already here. Well, not that they are wrong, but that’s not the actual Metaverse, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is portraying, so the Metaverse might be here but the Real, actual Metaverse is not here yet.

So if it’s not, still back to the question, what happens when it’s here? Ok stay with me on this one buddy, you will be using your imagination now… Let’s look at how the Metaverse will change our world when it’s here.

Work

With the help of the Internet, the Covid-19 Pandemic has really changed how we work, the jobs we do, and how we push our businesses out there. Although even before the pandemic, some have been working online, some already have jobs online and also, some have already been pushing their businesses online. But before the pandemic, it was really just a few and after the pandemic or during the pandemic we were all drawn closer to the internet, and to the online world, more. Nowadays, we mostly see jobs online being remote, we now do zoom calls for work meetings and just coining a little bit of that into the Metaverse which some call Internet 2.0. Just coining a little bit of that and imagining it in a virtual world instead, that’s how the Metaverse will change our world when it gets here.

Instead of Zoom calls or Google meet or whatever business video conference app or software is out there, instead of that, When the real Metaverse is here, doing work meetings or work would be you picking up your VR headset or AR glasses, and boom, you’re in the same room with your coworkers or your manager. The interesting part is that you might just be experiencing all these just from your living room or bedroom, but with the Metaverse and with the help of AR and VR Technology, you will be In the same room with your coworkers and you could talk with them directly, just as if you’re actually there with them. Better still, with AR Tech, you would be able to show your manager that project you’ve been working on in the form of a hologram from the real-world workstation. That’s the Metaverse.

The Metaverse will change the way we work in so many ways including in a way that job opportunities will be created in the Metaverse, let’s say 20 years from now, our real-world might just be full of everyone with VR on their head and holograms almost everywhere. Jobs will be created in the Metaverse, better yet, that job you have in the real world you might just still be able to still own that job in the Metaverse, the difference would just be that this time you’re working in a digitalized environment. Imagine being a teacher in real life, you would still actually be able to take that teaching as a job in the Metaverse except that it will be a digitalized environment with avatars representing your students.

Shop

Shopping in the Metaverse would be nothing like we’ve ever seen, just like I pictured at the beginning of this article. Just walking down the street in the real world and you could shop just by sliding holograms of whatever you want to buy, and it gets delivered to your real-world home doorstep. That aside, some fashion companies have already been doing their thing in the Metaverse, you can now shop for clothes, and shoes in the Metaverse, let your avatar try it out, and get it delivered to your real-world doorstep. Also, have you seen or experienced the Walmart virtual store where you can do shopping virtually in a virtual store and it gets delivered to your home in real life?

All of these are really just giving us a glimpse of what the real Metaverse could look like. When the Metaverse gets here, who knows, there might not actually be physical stores anymore, they might not even exist anymore if everyone starts interacting only in the Metaverse.

Interacting With Each Other

The Metaverse, how would it change how we interact with each other when it gets here, can we date or have a genuine relationship in the Metaverse when it’s here? You might have heard of the game called second life, which is like, well, your second life. Some are already building relationships, getting married in second life with someone they don’t even know in the real world, or have seen or never even met in the real world.

That might sound familiar with what we see today on the internet, some are having relationships through the Internet today with someone they’ve never even met before, the Metaverse will be no different except instead of chatting or video calling, we would be able to go on a date virtually, in a virtual world. When the Metaverse gets here, who knows, your husband or wife might be someone you met in the Metaverse and maybe later plan a meetup in the real world to get married.

That aside, interacting with each other with a friend on the other side of the world, what would it be like? Well, imagine playing basketball or poker with a hologram, that’s how we would be interacting or playing with a friend or someone at the other end of the world when the Metaverse finally gets here.

Final Thoughts

I could go on and on, in several ways the Metaverse will change our world when it gets here. The Metaverse just like the Internet could make our life easier either by working, learning, playing, shopping, and more. It would be a crazy good experience in the real Metaverse, you might even forget the real world exist, that’s how powerful the Metaverse is, but no matter how crazy anyone might explain or tell you the Metaverse is, one thing is for sure, it’s coming and it’s going to change our world as we know it, just like the Internet did.