Great example! I even managed to forget about this phenomenon, although quite recently it seemed so cool and progressive. There were also Google glasses and several other similar projects.
In general, to be honest, now the Metaverses at this level of technical development cannot offer something really necessary and the projects that I see now (or their discussions) remind me of the "solution in search of a problem" scheme.
Well, I respectfully disagree. The metaverse, as I see it, is not just a passing trend, primarily because I believe the Internet as a whole is moving in the same direction. Although Facebook represents perhaps the largest effort in the field today, there are already dozens of companies working in this area, and even more are gearing up to. The idea has all the makings of a viable business and a completely new class of tool that will improve the interactions of millions of people who are growing ever more dependent on the Internet.
I think that this is not only because of the ongoing ascendancy of social networking, but also because of the underlying cultural changes that have happened in the last decade, particularly in the way we communicate. Internet-based social networking has simply made the self-expression of our souls ubiquitous in unprecedented ways.
I think the metaverse is the logical next step, where our physical reality will be even more intertwined with virtual reality . Rather than an entirely separate world, it will blend together so seamlessly, we will no longer even need to distinguish them. It will be one big, whole world, where information flows freely between the two. The vision of a node-only internet, one where each individual is confined to his or her own vessel, will be lost forever.
If you noticed, I made an important clarification - the current level of technical development.
When virtual reality is at least a little closer to reality (to transmit not only the image that monitors have been doing for decades), but also smells, sensations, and so on, then the concept of the Metaverses will begin to be relevant. At the moment, this is nonsense and not much different from what it was 10 years ago.
By the way, traditional social networks are dying out among the generation of zoomers, people prefer privacy and segmentation (to be different personalities in different communities), so it’s far from certain that the Metaverses will develop into something global and unified.
