By Dr. Anna Rostomyan and Dr. Monika Klein
The metaverse is a virtual reality universe that allows individuals to meet, socialize, work, play, entertain, communicate and even create. The term “metaverse” is a combination of “meta,” meaning transcendence and virtuality, as well as meaning “above,” “over,” “on top,” and “universe.” It is a three-dimensional virtual space inhabited by avatars of real people, where they can engage in various interactions starting from the business sector and even encompassing the education sector.
Introduction
The metaverse has vast possibilities in creating a virtual space where individuals can cooperate and create without seeing each other in real time and interacting with one another with their chosen avatars and holograms. In that universe, we have customized avatars; we can buy property, visit various places, meet people, and spend money (e.g., cryptocurrencies).
As Dwivedi et al. (2022) state, virtual environments and immersive games (such as Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox, and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight into the potential socioeconomic impact of a fully functional persistent cross-platform metaverse. The authors classify the definitions of the metaverse into four types—environment, interface, interaction, and social value. Summarizing each characteristic of the metaverse in a similar way to the real world provides a representative example of classifications that distinguish the types of metaverse. There is a realistic environment that faithfully reflects realistic constraints, and an unrealistic environment that gives many degrees of freedom without realistic constraints.
Apart from its vast advantages of creating a space where individuals can create and cooperate as in the real world, the metaverse brings with it challenges, too.
According to Kim & Kim (2023), as individuals became physically isolated from each other as a result of COVID-19, adolescents’ desire for social relationships boosted the online world, including the metaverse. Thus, metaverse services have now assumed an important place in the lives of young people as they affect online classes conducted at schools. Of course, this is a very beneficial tool that can keep students both interested and motivated, in addition to its use for educational purposes. The metaverse can also greatly harm children’s mental health, such as exacerbating depression, exhaustion, loneliness, worsened sleep, anxiety, addiction, self-harm, anorexia or bulimia. Cyberbullying, sexual misbehavior, exploitation of minors online, online gambling, privacy, and security can also become serious social issues among teenagers, as well as other age groups.
All this suggests that, apart from its vast advantages of creating a space where individuals can create and cooperate as in the real world, the metaverse brings with it challenges, too. Thus, the present paper elucidates both its advantages and benefits, as well as its shortcomings and pitfalls, which can be challenging to overcome, in spite of the cute avatars that one can choose when entering it in order to interact with others.
The Metaverse: A Friend or A Foe for Humanity
The launch of Horizon Worlds in 2021 by Meta Platforms and the vision of how the metaverse could potentially shape many aspects of how we work and socialize has engendered an increasing level of questioning and debate from academics and practitioners on the numerous societal implications for many people worldwide (Fernandez & Hui, 2022).
The new metaverse concept as outlined by Mark Zuckerberg describes an integrated immersive ecosystem where the barriers between the virtual and real worlds are seamless to users, allowing the use of avatars and holograms to work, interact, and socialize via simulated shared experiences (“Meta 2022”, seen in Dwivedi et al., 2022).
As stated above, the metaverse has great opportunities that people can benefit hugely from in a great range of disciplines, from education to business, medical, creative industries, and other fields. Yet it is of the utmost importance to note that it has both advantages and shortcomings, which we discuss below.
Positive features: In psychology and psychiatry, the metaverse can create opportunities for individuals to consult mental health professionals uniquely and potentially more comfortably by using avatars (Usmani et al., 2022). This can really be beneficial, since by means of using avatars one can exclude the fear of judgment and this can particularly benefit individuals with high social anxiety and interpersonal trauma levels or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In an experimental study by Slater et al. (2019), participants enacted internal dialogue in VR by alternating between two different virtual bodies, one representing themselves and the other representing Sigmund Freud. This method is considered to be possible for example in self-counseling. As we have already stated, it can be really very beneficial for those humans who have social anxiety because of a formerly experienced trauma and / or for those who are are isolated from society for this or that reason (be it during epidemics or pandemics, a childhood trauma, an adolescence trauma, or some other related issue). It can also be beneficial in virtual group therapy, where the people involved will not see each other’s personalities and will only interact with their avatars, which again protects from the fear of judgment. Also, the metaverse can be a place where people are free, can freely create, and can even fly, which can really enhance their innovative skills and provide the stimulus of an experience of something that goes beyond human biological “self,” and even beyond Mother Earth.
Negative features: Since it is mostly teenagers who engage with the metaverse, which is gaining more and more popularity within their circles, we have to look at that aspect. Actually, adolescence is a developmental period during which brain regions undergo significant changes because of biological and environmental factors (Larsen & Luna, 2018). Hence, during this period, the cognitive control system matures progressively. Specifically, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for the regulation of emotions and especially decision-making, is still in its development process (Damasio, 1998). Thus, adolescents’ ability to self-regulate their behaviors, desires, and emotions is still immature (Casey & Caudle, 2013). Moreover, previous studies have indicated that the intensive use of digital media can induce attentional problems (Swing et al., 2010), reduce working memory capacity because of an increased tendency to conduct multitasking, and lower the level and efficiency of comprehension of text written on screens, as compared to paper (Kim & Kim, 2024). Furthermore, we could conclude that their performance levels at school and other higher educational institutions might be lower if they have less self-control and are more driven by the thrill of the experience of avatars in the metaverse. Also, especially with teenagers, an overdose of the metaverse can result in cyberbullying and cybercrime, where there are no rules and they can do what they want. As for the older generation, both in elders and in youngsters, it can result in an antisocial behavior when people mostly interact with one another in the metaverse and unlearn the social skills of humans, the so-called “soft” skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, and empathy (Goleman, 1995), which make us humans “humane” and make inter-human cooperation plausible. Moreover, in some cases users might lose their recognition of the external, real world and may even acquire a distorted self-image, identifying themselves with their chosen avatars. Furthermore, in this connection it is also vital to state that it can become an addiction and separate humans from the actual outward external reality of the real world, to the extent that they will no longer be aware of their limited abilities in the real world and think that their metaverse abilities, such as flying, are real in the external reality.
As we have seen, there are more drawbacks than benefits, but still, if we are fully aware of both the advantages and the disadvantages, we can eventually benefit from its possibilities. Especially in the medical field, the metaverse has significant potential to transform the healthcare industry, particularly in the therapeutic fields, making patient-therapist interactions safe, protected, and enjoyable.
To amplify its benefits and reduce its pitfalls, some of the following strategies may be deployed:
- Before they enter, users should be informed by the platform of the challenges that they might face while using it.
- Scientists should work on investigating the ways in which the metaverse impacts cognitive abilities, and how to tackle them.
- Parents and carers should take care that their children do not unlearn their social skills and that they make friendships both in the metaverse and in the real world, for example by limiting the time spent in the metaverse.
- There should be strategies developed and deployed by psychologists and psychotherapists on how to prevent excessive use of the metaverse and the resultant addiction, which is more difficult to deal with.
- Educators should help students differentiate between real-world and virtual interactions, organizing some in-class activities, too, so that the students can engage in real-time conversations and interactions that have the potential to raise oxytocin levels, which is one of the “happy” hormones ensuring our emotional and psychological well-being.
- Platform-provided safety features should be available to restrict unwanted interactions and infringements upon their personal space. It is also essential that young people understand and take advantage of the safety features available within metaverse experiences, including blocking, muting, and reporting functionalities.
- Consideration should be given by content creators to the ethical implications of their metaverse creations, ensuring that they promote inclusivity, diversity, and respect, and discourage any form of harassment. They should thus strive to make their virtual experiences accessible to users from diverse educational backgrounds, different languages, various cultures, and abilities for all.
- Strict boundaries should be kept between virtual and real lives, so that users are not carried away by their imagination and social isolation.
- Older users should be provided with guidance and assistance in finding their way around the metaverse when they encounter it, since they may find acquiring IT, AI, and VR skills more difficult compared with agile and proficient youngsters.
All the foregoing suggests that if we are aware of the risks, biases, potential, and threats of the metaverse and follow some strict guidelines while using it, we can make the best of our interactions in this thrilling space called “the metaverse”.
Conclusion
To conclude with, the metaverse has already begun to be applied in various fields, creating space and increasing accessibility for new experiences and adventures, providing educational resources, and ensuring virtual social interactions, where especially those with a high level of social anxiety can interact with others more easily. Thus, especially in the medical field, the metaverse has significant potential to transform the healthcare industry, particularly in the therapeutic fields, where patients can talk to the avatar of the doctor without fear of judgment. Yet, it brings with it also a number of negative consequences as we have seen in our earlier discussions, such as cybercrime, cyberbullying, and social isolation, as well as addiction. This said, each medal has its flip-side, as they say, and, like everything else, the metaverse, too, has its benefits and pitfalls, its advantages and shortcomings, its assets and drawbacks. However, if we tackle the challenges efficiently and make the most of the vast possibilities that it brings with it, we can really benefit from this great advancement in science, making sure that our interactions with other humans can take place both in the metaverse and in the real world.
