The Metaverse Malfunction: Zuckerberg’s Venture Into Something Nobody Asked For

Review by Guinevere MacLeod

The Metaverse, created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a failed attempt to create a new digital space for virtual reality users to interact and access the internet. Although the foundations and details of the Metaverse have yet to be finessed and users should grant it ample time to find its footing, time that should be awarded to any up-and-coming innovation, it’s clear at this point that the new platform doesn’t possess the elements to contribute to any meaningful success with regard to the average user and social benefits. 

Mark Zuckerberg is launching the Metaverse, a new virtual reality technology and space that promises the benefits of holding many different identities. The book “Navigating the Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World” by Cathy Hackl et al. provides insightful information on what the Metaverse is and how everyone can be involved in it. For a condensed definition, it is a cloud-based service, a limitless connection, an open social platform, and the entire internet in a headset. The problem is, or at least the problem for Zuckerberg, that nobody wants it. The current patterns and trends of technology, beyond a business standpoint, already prove that the Metaverse is destined to fail; socially, recreationally, and physically. There are many promising economic predictions made by business professionals and technology experts, such as Mark Van Rijmenam, who wrote the book “Step Into the Multiverse” in which he’s very optimistic about the possibilities. Still, there’s also global evidence presented by billions of people who are not partaking. According to Meta, the owner of Metaverse, there were 300,000 monthly users in February 2022 (Skepticism, Confusion, Frustration: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Struggles), which is abysmal for its multibillion-dollar budget. 

Socially, the Metaverse has been advertised as a limitless social platform, a way for users with a headset to connect seamlessly in a virtual world containing personalized characters, settings, and aesthetics. The idea of people interacting with each other without ever leaving their living room may have sounded fantastic five years ago. Still, it sounds like a dystopian continuation of a nightmare that, collectively, most people would never like to revisit. The word ‘Zoom’ already incites deep loathing in the minds of so many people, and after years of living virtually, it’s clear that this way of connecting is very few people’s first choices. 

Physically, virtual reality headsets aren’t taking off the way they were predicted. They’re uncomfortable at best and nauseating and disorienting at worst (Digital marketing guru on the metaverse: "Meta will fail and Apple will be the winner."). The feeling of putting on a headset for the first time is exciting and full of wonderment. Still, after the thrill of new technology wears off, the medium of virtual reality doesn’t possess any enticing user experience elements that would cement it as a consistent enough mode of entertainment that would warrant the costs and upkeep of the Metaverse. 

Recreationally, it simply isn’t new. The Metaverse promises a grand digital landscape open to everyone. Still, it is hindered by not only the price and physicality of wearing of a headset but by the competition of metaverses that already exist for people who would be interested in this in the first place, which isn’t as many people as the Metaverse creators seem to think. Many people have already invested so many hours into other platforms such as Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite, the desire to try Zuckerberg’s new world isn’t there. 

Overall, the Metaverse, at this point, seems destined to fail. It is doomed by a strange combination: the good and established aspects already exist within other universes, and the new and innovative elements are generally unpleasant and unwanted. On paper, it is promising and advanced, but socially and recreationally, nobody cares.