Simple Living Can't Exist in The Metaverse
I choose reality over virtual reality
Welcome to Simple and Straightforward, a publication about living simply, sustainably and with intention.
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At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, the Metaverse scares me.
Mark Zuckerberg’s version may be floundering, but that doesn’t mean the Metaverse as a concept is dead in the water. Far from it - 2023 has seen a rise in Metaverse cryptocurrency as big names in gaming double down their investment in commitment to the online space.
It’s coming, whether we like it or not.
Logging into a virtual world filled with unimaginable, infinite possibilities may sound exciting to some, but for me - someone who advocates living a slower, simpler, more sustainable life - I can’t get excited about it. I’m all for technology that enhances our lives or pushes mankind forward. But much like many of our latter-day consumer technologies (ever-fancier iPhones or smartwatches, bigger, clearer TVs to name a few), I don’t think most of the Metaverse will push forward much.
The reality we have is good enough - it could be great. But it won’t be if we lose ourselves in silly-looking headsets for hours a day.
Simple living can’t exist in the Metaverse. And if the Metaverse is indeed where we are headed as a human race, it will only make simple living harder in reality too.
I vote for a boycott.
The Metaverse is the plaything of the rich (but that won’t stop many of us wanting to be part of it)
Those VR headsets are costly - Google tells me a cheap one is around £400 ($480). The Metaverse needs infrastructure and hardware like fast internet and access to software (Minecraft — a Metaverse-based game — is around $30 which doesn’t sound like a lot, but is the equivalent to 3 days worth of average salary in countries like Albania).
Every single thing you want to do in the Metaverse, from choosing your avatar to holding a meeting, will cost money, be it in real or NFT / crypto form. If you don’t have the cash, the Metaverse goes from being a place of infinite opportunity to being very restrictive indeed.
I would love to see the Metaverse stay in the hands of the rich and privileged and not trickle down to the likes of you and me but we all know that never happens. What the rich have, the rest of us want and we’re prepared to put up costly sums of money - often money we don’t have - to get it. We’ve already gone there with our houses, cars, clothes, vacations and lifestyles, and I predict that if the Metaverse finally becomes viable, we’ll go there too.
The cost of being part of the Metaverse simply doesn’t jive with living a slower, simpler, more sustainable life.
And that’s no bad thing.
Reality can suck. But virtual reality isn’t the answer
Living a simpler, slower, more intentional life is about being more mindful, present, and focused - more rooted in real life. It’s about focusing on what truly matters like people and experiences and emotions and things that give us - not deplete us of - energy.
Sometimes, that reality sucks. People can be crappy, even the ones you like. Mindfully consuming social media takes more effort than watching cat videos. And sometimes the more good you put out into the world, the more you realize how sucky the world can be.
The Metaverse looks like it could give a welcome relief to that suckiness. A distraction.
But that’s exactly what it is - a distraction. It’s yet another way we can divert ourselves from reality as if there weren’t enough ways already (shopping, TV, gaming, and watching TikTok videos to name a few).
The older I get the more I think we should embrace reality in all its forms - the bad and the ugly as well as the good. The world isn’t — and shouldn’t be — perfect. It’s a gloriously messy, imperfect place and I love that about it. We shouldn’t find distractions from it, we should jump into it every single day.
Because perfection is boring. The perfect avatar with flawless skin and body is boring. Hundreds of immersive VR movies carefully selected for you by an AI-based algorithm that knows you better than your own mother is boring. The perfect backdrop to your virtual meeting is boring.
Humans thrive on resistance and conflict and imperfection. We need something that rubs us one way or another, otherwise we just get — you guessed it — bored. It’s why the person with everything wants more. It’s why the rich kids rebel.
Reality really can suck. But a “perfect” virtual reality definitely isn’t the answer.
We could just…not
One big upside of perpetual travel is that I am constantly being reminded of — and thus can keep in check — my privilege as a white, middle-class Brit. Every time I visit a country that is poorer than my own (which is almost all the time seeing as Britain is ranked 28th in the world and most of the richer ones don’t interest me in the slightest), I am continually reminded that my problems, aims, and opportunities are not the same as everyone else’s.
The Metaverse is no exception. We may discuss the merits and pitfalls of it in the UK, or in America. But (many) people in the likes of Spain, Croatia, Albania, or Bosnia - four countries I’ve had the pleasure of visiting in the last year - don’t give a fudge about the Metaverse. It’s so far down their priority list it’s almost laughable. For a start, they’ve got bigger fish to fry like making rent. But more than that, the Metaverse simply wouldn’t fit into their lifestyle.
Would people in Spain rather headset it in their small apartment or meet friends for drinks? Would Croatians rather sit on their couches or dive into the clear blue sea?
I’m sure the Metaverse in one iteration or another will be a thing in almost every country in the world but I believe there are enough people in enough countries that simply won’t — or at least don’t have the opportunity to — care. At least not for a long while yet.
The Metaverse is a choice. Living simply, sustainably and with intention is also a choice. If they don’t go together — as I am posing they don’t — then it’s a choice you have to make.
I choose reality over virtual reality every time.
Other ponderings I’ve had about the Metaverse and AI
Some Metaverse advocates claim that the infinite nature of avatars (you can be a human of any gender, an animal, a mix, or something else entirely) gives way to self-expression we could never have IRL. But what happens when the headset comes off? At the end of the day, you’ve still got to look at you in the mirror. You are not an avatar.
I listened to a talk about how AI glasses could help you find products in a supermarket. Is this a problem we need to solve? And what does it mean for small independent shops where interactions with the clerk are all part of the experience?
There is fierce debate about the ethics of AI art, seeing as it learns from IRL artists. Is it plagiarism? The same goes for AI copywriting. My initial feelings about this are not good.
I don’t want to live in a world where half of what I read was generated by a tool like Jasper AI. Reading something written by a robot creeps me out.
There is some interesting discourse around the Metaverse’s role when it comes to disability. On the one hand, it could help - it could allow access to previously unavailable environments. On the other, critics say it could “hide disability” (will someone in a wheelchair still choose to be in one in the Metaverse?)
I am all for ways to combat loneliness and some say that the Metaverse could be it. And it could be, to a point. Having said that…
The Metaverse will never, ever, replace real human interaction.
My newest Medium article (paywall free)
I’m getting back in the swing of Medium after an extended break so it’s just the one article this week:
Living in Southern Spain Helped Me Heal My Toxic Relationship with My Weight
3 of the best articles I read online this week
The Brutal Alternate World in Which the U.S. Abandoned Ukraine - it’s a bleak read, but also an important one.
Greta Thunberg ends year with one of the greatest tweets in history
How Balenciaga Imploded — And Why It’s a Parable for the Ills of the 21st Century
THANKS FOR READING!
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I hear you. The Metaverse is something people might find fun as an escape when necessary, like watching movies, but it shouldn't be something we engage in every day. Have fun with it, then take the mask off and go out into the real world and live a life. We're humans after all.