You might have heard of the 鈥楳etaverse鈥 which was introduced by Mark Zuckerberg at the end of 2021. Mark Zuckerberg describes this as a three-dimensional space where we would connect with people to work together and have fun. Delia Dumitrica, associate professor in Culture and Communication at ESHCC, was interviewed by NEMO Kennislink to share her ideas on the metaverse.
鈥淎 digital world can create opportunities that are not there in the real world. Think of people with disabilities, who, for example, have difficulties going out the door or have mental problems.鈥
The need for the metaverse
Delia Dumitrica does believe that there is a fruitful promise to the idea of a more 鈥榖odily鈥 experience in a virtual world and digital communication. However, within her own environment, the academic world, she did see that her students were happy to go back to campus after the covid lockdowns. 鈥淚 noticed tremendous joy from the students to meet again in real life, and not digitally鈥, she says.
Is the metaverse something we really want and need? Delia explains how companies usually lead us to believe that we have a need for something. 鈥淭he same happened with social media鈥, she says. 鈥淐ompanies create a hype, which leads to a need that we didn鈥檛 even know we had.鈥
However, this doesn鈥檛 mean that people cannot be rightfully enthusiastic. 鈥淎 digital world can create opportunities that are not there in the real world鈥, Delia explains. 鈥淭hink of people with disabilities, who, for example, have difficulties going out the door or have mental problems. However, we do need to consider that there are people who simply cannot afford VR headsets.鈥
Apart from Delia, Wijnand IJsselsteijn (TU Eindhoven) and Hans Berend (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) were also interviewed for the article by NEMO Kennislink.
- Researcher
