Since the creator of Facebook, the American tycoon Mark Zuckemberg, announced the Meta project, as the new version of the Facebook platform is called, the number of debates around the so-called “metaverses” has multiplied. Some specialists have considered that these environments can cause significant damage to mental health.
What is a metaverse?
To begin with, it is called “metaverse” that interactive experience, multisensory and immersive that occurs in the use of Internet devices or technologies. A metaverse is made up of different virtual environments that are shared on a certain platform that is interconnected through the use of augmented reality, three dimensional emulationand virtual realityamong other.
We recommend you:
This technological constellation allows the user to interact through digital representations called “avatars”. Is cyber space It thus represents a simulation of the real world but with possibilities that exceed it.
With the idea that the largest technology company in the world, such as Facebook, becomes a metaverse, sociological analyzes and debates have arisen about it, but also about psychology.
You can also read:
Possible consequences on mental health
The newspaper recently published an analysis on the possible impact of the Meta multiverse on the mental health of young people, and pointed out, among the most predictable, the following consequences:
- Addiction: For the specialist Gabriela Paoli, consulted by the Spanish newspaper, the offer of a virtual world as an option for an evasive reality It can be highly addictive, especially in younger people.
- Psychotic episodes: given that these technologies have already been applied in areas of entertainment, such as video games, and their consequences have included psychotic episodes due to its excessive use, to think that something similar will happen with access massive and free to the Meta platform, so sufficient on a global level, it is not something crazy.
- Deterioration of social relationships: The specialist mentions that if Covid 19 has shown anything, it is that reduced social interaction and isolation have dire consequences on the mental health. This would occur even more with indiscriminate access to the Meta metaverse.
- Loss of healthy habits: As has also been widely seen, the Feeding Habits, of physical activity and socialmany times they are seen reduced by virtual interaction. This would not be the exception.
- Less privacy and confidentiality: Although we know that practically all of our personal and legal information is on the network, the Meta metaverse could achieve even greater virtualization. The rise of devices like cameras, space sensors, facial identification sensorsetc., would be new control mechanisms for today’s society, according to psychologist Markus Carter, also consulted by the newspaper.
You may also be interested in: