Meta Paints a Picture of an Idealistic Metaverse in New Future Planning Report

Meta has published a new report which looks at how its planned metaverse will help to facilitate more inclusion and opportunity, with the underlying technologies and concepts being built, from the ground up, by a more diverse set of creators and experts.

Which seems as much optimistic as factual, but nevertheless, the report also provides some interesting insight into Meta’s broad-reaching metaverse vision – or ‘the next chapter of the internet’, as Meta says.

Which is, indeed, broad-reaching, with Meta explaining that the metaverse that it sees will encapsulate several key interaction elements.

Of course, VR has been the main focus of Meta’s metaverse push, but the company actually groups all of its next-gen innovations and developments into the one bucket. Which is slightly confusing, but basically, Meta wants to claim ownership of the next stage by being the leader in all of these spaces.

Which also includes expanded collaboration with creators.

As per Meta:

“An array of technology companies are building products and experiences for the metaverse, and early versions of it already exist in the virtual universes of Fortnite and the photo filters on your smartphone.”

Yeah, those are very different experiences – Fortnite seems like a good proxy for what, seemingly, Meta envisions the metaverse becoming, a wholly digital environment, where users interact via avatar, and can travel between a range of different experiences in the app.

Photo filters? I mean, maybe.  

“The metaverse will extend beyond that and include AR glasses that project digital information on the world around us like a heads-up display of a fighter pilot or your car windshield. And just as shopping is now a hybrid of online and offline, the metaverse will be a mixed reality that blends the digital and the physical.”

It’s an interesting conceptual overview, merging current use cases into this new environment. But whether all of these things will necessarily align remains to be seen.

A big part of its metaverse development, however, is ensuring participation from people that have ‘historically been excluded from the digital frontier’.

“As the metaverse begins to bloom, there’s a major power shift at play for creators as many find they’re less limited by the systems and structures of the past. Creators are developing new skills and monetizing more of their own intellectual property, as well as banding together and rewriting the rules of co-creation.”

That, in turn, Meta says, provides a platform for more people to create more meaningful experiences that are designed to be equitable, inclusive and empathetic.

“Ever the cultural pioneers, creators will play a critical role as a bridge to the metaverse for both people and brands.”

Again, a lot of this seems to be more hopeful projection than reality – but the hope, Meta says, is that the metaverse shift will provide more opportunities for creators from all walks of life to build their business, and career, around their passions in all-new ways.

Which may be true, though I don’t know that those opportunities are as within reach as Meta wants to suggest in this overview.

Regardless, Meta says that these considerations factor into how brands approach the metaverse shift, with Meta highlighting these specific elements:

By focusing on these elements, and exploring new ways to build in this new environment, that will help to unlock the full potential of the space.

I don’t know, I’m fairly skeptical about the impetus of the report, which looks to paint a utopian picture of what a theoretical metaverse might be. Because we know, based on past experiences, that no matter what you might hope, these visions generally don’t play out in this way.

You put a lot of people together in a room, and it’s not usually the best elements that are amplified, and while building towards hope, and the facilitation of such, is a noble approach, not sure that’s exactly how things are going to go in reality.

Or virtual reality – and all of this is also, theoretical, as the metaverse doesn’t yet exist.

It’s all theoretical fiction – in which case, it can be anything you want. Which is kind of what this report is all about.

You can check out Meta’s latest metaverse insights report here.