Into the Metaverse

“Ring-ring!” An alarm clock rings on June’s phone, waking her up. “7:30 AM,” it says on the screen, “November 10th, 2040.” She turns off her alarm and gets out of bed, ready for a new day of school. However, instead of packing her backpack and letting her parents drive her to her school, she reaches for her VR headset.

“Fully charged, perfect!” June smiles as she puts her headset on. Luckily, this headset is nothing like the heavy ones from twenty years ago that made people dizzy. In fact, there’s no difference wearing them than walking in the actual world. These new headsets are light and delicate, just like a pair of fancy glasses.

As June logs into the system, the sentence “Welcome to the metaverse, June” floats in front of her eyes. Yes, the metaverse - a virtual world made with Virtual Reality technology, a digital place where people can live and interact with each other using their avatars, just like the real world. In fact, it had become the new reality. The metaverse had quickly transformed from being a hot topic in sci-fi works decades ago, to being an integral part of everyone’s lives.

June quickly dresses her avatar in her HC uniform. She changes her virtual Air Forces to dress shoes, and puts on her golf shirt and kilt. She can’t afford to get another pink slip! She also takes off her makeup from the virtual hangout the night before. June then promptly heads to class.

In history class, June learns how an advancement in virtual reality technology had helped people work and learn from home during a global pandemic decades ago. This way of life became the ‘norm’ even after the pandemic ended, which allowed the metaverse to thrive.

A meeting invitation from her philosophy teacher drags her back to reality - virtual reality. She doesn’t want to be marked as tardy, so she joins the meeting as fast as she can. Within seconds she finds herself sitting in her usual classroom. She and her classmates sit in tables and chairs lined up under the bright classroom lights, in front of a huge blank whiteboard. The windows in the classroom walls show the winter wonderland in the background. The VR classroom is no different than a physical classroom. Ms. Smith’s avatar floats in the middle of the classroom as she waits for others to join the meeting. Seems like she just bought a new pair of star-shaped pink sunglasses for her avatar.

“Good morning class!” Slowly, Ms. Smith lands on the ground. Attendance had been taken automatically as people joined the classroom. “Floating in air is a feature I really enjoy. So today, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of metaverse - the world we live in today. Any thoughts?”

One of June’s peers raises their virtual hand. It’s June’s friend, Yasmine. “It’s much more fun, since we can have virtual hang-outs, customize our avatars and stuff. It connects people to each other.” June grins as she hears the phrase “virtual hang-outs” - Yasmine had invited her and their mutual friend, Maria, to play board games in the metaverse today after school.

June raises her hand too, “It’s also environmentally friendly. People don’t need to travel to other places for the same experience.”

As more answers come in, Ms. Smith smiles. “These are all great answers. Has anyone thought about the negative side?” After a few moments of silence, she adds, “You were all born in the era of virtual reality, so I know it might be difficult for you to think about.”

“It’s addictive,” someone says, making a few others laugh.

Ms. Smith chuckles. “Exactly! But have you ever thought about how it divides people instead of bringing people together? It creates a separate world from the physical one, but no matter how realistic it is, technically speaking, nothing is real. We have avatars similar to what we look like because it’s required for school, but here, people can be completely different from who they really are.” She then adds, “When I was your age this didn’t exist and people lived a more simple life. Friends would hang out together in real-life malls or at each other’s homes, not in a headset.”

June listens closely as the conversation goes on, but eventually becomes preoccupied with her own thoughts. She doesn't understand the idea of the metaverse pulling people apart. Her parents were busy and often had business trips outside the country, but with metaverse, she got to see them every day. It made her feel so happy knowing that they’re always there.

Class ends before she could even realize. Soon, she leaves the classroom with Yasmine, and heads to visual arts through a colourful hallway. There, she sees the art teacher’s instructions while she paints on her sketchbook in reality. She tries to combine VR to her work, so people can scan the page with their own devices and view the 3D brushstrokes.

Afterwards, she heads to lunch and eats the sandwich she made this morning as she sits in the virtual dining hall and chats with Yasmine and Maria. Later in accounting, she uses multiple virtual screens to show all the charts she needs at a time. Finally, she does an interesting, virtual chemistry experiment in science, which uses simulated dangerous chemicals. This allows her to perform the experiment, with zero risks and harm. After school, she goes to a virtual room with Maria and Yasmine, where they play virtual monopoly, using virtual game pieces that they each created to their likings. Soon it becomes late, so June bids goodbye in her virtual avatar to her virtual friends.

She takes her headset off and finds herself back in the real world, alone and lost. Her room had never seemed so empty before. She glances outside the window through the half-closed curtains, and sees the same dull buildings and empty streets under the lifeless gray sky. Every other window sits in front of closed curtains.

She reminisces about philosophy class and wonders how it would feel to spend time with Maria and Yasmine in real life. It must be very different; no fancy avatars, no simulated game pieces, no floating effects - just she and them together, walking down a real street, sitting in a real room, eating real food.

Slowly she becomes sleepy. Just before falling asleep, she says to herself:

“Welcome to the metaverse, June.”

https://time.com/6116826/what-is-the-metaverse/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49r5GbtcqNg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLTZUaMSDQ

Behind the Ivy HCComment