Not everyone was impressed with the concept of the metaverse, a virtual world where people can interact with each other with their respective avatars. One of them is Tony Fadell who is known as the father of the iPod.
Fadell used to be a Senior Vice President at Apple who handled iPod technology. He commented that the metaverse risks damaging human interactions. That's because people no longer face to face physically.
"If you give technology between those human connections, then that's where the toxic thing happens," he said, as quoted by the BBC.
As is known, the metaverse is being popularized by Meta, Facebook's parent. To enter the metaverse world, people wear virtual reality (VR) headsets.
According to Fadell, metaverse technology may be useful, but it is not a real medium of communication between humans and one another.
"When you're trying to make connections and social interactions, but you can't see other people's faces, can't see their eyes, then you don't have a humane way to connect," he says.
It can be risky, for example, triggering people to bully or deliberately provoke people's emotions. "Could create more trolls, people who like to hide and use the metaverse to get attention," he said.
On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg recently mentioned that there will come a time when the virtual world of the metaverse is so real and comfortable that users don't want to leave. Currently that has not happened, but according to him, people are already dependent on the digital world in the form of screens.
"Many people think that the metaverse is somewhere, but one definition is when an essentially immersive digital world will become the primary way we live and spend our time," predicts Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta itself has plans to build an amazing metaverse in the next 5 to 10 years. Not only in appearance, but also involves the senses of sound, smell and touch.
