Editing Metaverse (section)

== Criticism and concerns ==

=== Feasibility ===
In a February 2022 article for ''[[The New York Times]]'', Lauren Jackson argued that the metaverse is "stalled from achieving scale by a lack of infrastructure for both hardware and software, a monopolistic approach to platform development, and a lack of clear governance standards."<ref name=":9">{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Lauren |date=February 12, 2022 |title=Is the Metaverse Just Marketing? |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/podcasts/metaverse-marketing.html |access-date=February 17, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In December 2021, [[Raja Koduri]], senior vice president of Intel, claimed that "Truly persistent and immersive computing, at scale and accessible by billions of humans in real time, will require even more: a 1,000-times increase in computational efficiency from today's state of the art."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Koduri |first=Raja |author-link=Raja Koduri |date=December 14, 2021 |title=Powering the Metaverse |url=https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/opinion/powering-metaverse.html |access-date=February 22, 2022 |website=Intel}}</ref>

In an article for ''The New York Times'' on October 26, 2022, [[Ryan Mac]], a technology reporter, claimed that for the past year, Mark Zuckerberg has struggled to find the best way to achieve the metaverse. He has yet to succeed.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mac |first=Ryan |date=October 26, 2022 |title=Meta's Profit Slides by More Than 50 Percent as Challenges Mount |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/technology/meta-facebook-q3-earnings.html |access-date=November 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

=== Privacy ===
[[Information privacy]] is an area of concern for the metaverse because related companies will likely collect users' personal information through interactions and [[biometric]] data from wearable virtual and augmented reality devices.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Lik-Hang |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355172308 |title=All One Needs to Know about Metaverse: A Complete Survey on Technological Singularity, Virtual Ecosystem, and Research Agenda |last2=Braud |first2=Tristan |last3=Zhou |first3=Pengyuan |last4=Wang |first4=Lin |last5=Xu |first5=Dianlei |last6=Lin |first6=Zijun |last7=Kumar |first7=Abhishek |last8=Bermejo |first8=Carlos |last9=Hui |first9=Pan |date=October 11, 2021 |doi=10.13140/RG.2.2.11200.05124/8 |doi-access=free |arxiv=2110.05352}}</ref> Meta Platforms (previously Facebook) is planning on employing targeted advertising within their metaverse, raising further worries related to the spread of misinformation and loss of personal privacy.<ref name="O'Brian-Chan"/> In 2021, David Reid of [[Liverpool Hope University]] argued the amount of data collection in the metaverse would be greater than that on the internet stating "If you think about the amount of data a company could collect on the [[World Wide Web]] right now, compared to what it could collect with the metaverse, there is just no comparison."<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 11, 2021 |title=Who is Going to Police the 'Metaverse'? |url=https://www.hope.ac.uk/news/allnews/who-is-going-to-police-the-metaverse.html |access-date=January 19, 2022 |website=www.hope.ac.uk}}</ref> In fact, the current metaverse technology is very immature. Abdulsattar Jaber, a professor at Iraq's [[Middle Technical University]], found that the new technology used by the metaverse may cause many problems related to the security and privacy of system users.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abdulsattar Jaber |first=Tanya |date=July 11, 2022 |title=Security Risks of the Metaverse World |url=https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-jim/article/view/33187 |journal=International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies |volume=16 |issue=13 |pages=4–14 |doi=10.3991/ijim.v16i13.33187 |s2cid=250467972 |issn=1865-7923|doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== User safety ===
User addiction and [[problematic social media use]] is another concern. [[Internet addiction disorder]], social media, and [[video game addiction]] can have mental and physical repercussions over a prolonged period of time, such as depression,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Huddleston |first=Tom |date=January 31, 2022 |title='This is creating more loneliness': The metaverse could be a serious problem for kids, experts say |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/31/psychologists-metaverse-could-be-a-problem-for-kids-mental-health.html |access-date=February 2, 2022 |website=CNBC}}</ref> anxiety, and various other harms related to having a [[sedentary lifestyle]] such as an increased risk for [[obesity]] and [[cardiovascular disease]].<ref name=":102" /> Experts are also concerned that the metaverse could be used as an 'escape' from reality in a similar fashion to existing internet technologies.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Woody |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpRlAgAAQBAJ&dq=woody%20evans&pg=PA95 |title=Information Dynamics in Virtual Worlds |date=2011 |publisher=Chandos |isbn=9781780632742 |access-date=November 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207063211/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Information_Dynamics_in_Virtual_Worlds/tpRlAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=woody+evans&pg=PA95&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=December 7, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Virtual crime|Virtual crimes]]  like [[sex abuse]], [[child grooming]], and harassment are significant challenges within existing virtual reality social platforms, and may be similarly prevalent in the metaverse.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Basu |first=Tanya |date=December 16, 2021 |title=The metaverse has a groping problem already |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/16/1042516/the-metaverse-has-a-groping-problem/ |access-date=January 19, 2022 |website=[[MIT Technology Review]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Chalmers |first=David |date=January 28, 2022 |title=What Should Be Considered a Crime in the Metaverse? |url=https://www.wired.com/story/crime-metaverse-virtual-reality/ |magazine=Wired |issn=1059-1028 |access-date=January 28, 2022}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Baker-White |first=Emily |date=February 11, 2022 |title=Meta Wouldn't Tell Us How It Enforces Its Rules In VR, So We Ran A Test To Find Out |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/meta-facebook-horizon-vr-content-rules-test |access-date=March 6, 2022 |website=[[BuzzFeed News]]}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Oremus |first=Will |date=February 7, 2022 |title=Kids are flocking to Facebook's 'metaverse.' Experts worry predators will follow. |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/07/facebook-metaverse-horizon-worlds-kids-safety/ |access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> In February 2022, investigations by BBC News and ''The Washington Post'' found minors engaging in adult activities in applications such as [[VRChat]] and [[Horizon Worlds]] despite an age requirement of 13 years or older.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last1=Crawford |first1=Angus |last2=Smith |first2=Tony |date=February 23, 2022 |title=Metaverse app allows kids into virtual strip clubs |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60415317 |access-date=March 6, 2022}}</ref>

In an October 2022 interview, Roblox Chief Scientist Morgan McGuire stated that it is "a challenge to moderate 3D", and also compared moderating [[Roblox]] to shutting down [[Speakeasy|speakeasies]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Chmielewski |first1=Dawn |last2=Dastin |first2=Jeffrey |date=October 11, 2022 |title=Roblox says policing virtual world is like 'shutting down speakeasies' |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/technology/reuters-momentum-roblox-says-policing-virtual-world-is-like-shutting-down-2022-10-11/ |access-date=October 12, 2022}}</ref>

=== Regulation ===
With the emergence of the metaverse, many<ref name=":9" /> are calling for new regulations to protect users when they interact in the virtual world and to ensure that [[intellectual property]] (IP) laws are extended to both physical and virtual objects, respecting the rights of inventors, designers, and owners of [[trademark]]s, just as they would in the real world.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 2022 |title=The metaverse, NFTs and IP rights: to regulate or not to regulate? |url=https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2022/02/article_0002.html |website=WIPO Magazine}}</ref>

=== Social issues ===
Metaverse development may magnify the social impacts of online [[Echo chamber (media)|echo chambers]] and digitally alienating spaces<ref name=":032" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite magazine |last=Shou |first=Darren |title=I Want My Daughter to Live in a Better Metaverse |url=https://www.wired.com/story/i-want-my-daughter-to-live-in-a-better-metaverse/ |url-status=live |magazine=Wired |issn=1059-1028 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210910165607/https://www.wired.com/story/i-want-my-daughter-to-live-in-a-better-metaverse/ |archive-date=September 10, 2021 |access-date=November 1, 2021}}</ref> or abuse common social media engagement strategies to manipulate users with biased content.<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peck |first=Andrew |date=2020 |title=A Problem of Amplification: Folklore and Fake News in the Age of Social Media |journal=Journal of American Folklore |volume=133 |issue=529 |pages=329–351 |doi=10.5406/jamerfolk.133.529.0329 |issn=1535-1882 |s2cid=243130538}}</ref> Keza MacDonald of ''[[The Guardian]]'' criticized the utopianism of technology companies who claim that a metaverse could be a reprieve from worker exploitation, [[prejudice]], and [[discrimination]]. MacDonald stated that they would be more positive towards metaverse development if it was not dominated by "companies and disaster capitalists trying to figure out a way to make more money as the real world's resources are dwindling."<ref>{{Cite web |last=MacDonald |first=Keza |date=January 25, 2022 |title=I've seen the metaverse – and I don't want it |url=https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/25/ive-seen-the-metaverse-and-i-dont-want-it |access-date=January 27, 2022 |website=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> Marketing professor [[Andreas Kaplan]], citing their experience studying ''[[Second Life]]'' users, argues that the metaverse may have a generally negative societal impact due to their strongly addictive potential.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kaplan|first=Andreas|date=November 2, 2021|title=Facebook's Metaverse: A nightmare turning into reality?|url=https://thechoice.escp.eu/tl-dr/facebooks-metaverse-a-nightmare-turning-into-reality/|access-date=March 10, 2022|website=ESCP}}</ref> People with physical disabilities like [[deafness]] or [[blindness]] are disadvantaged without technologies addressed to [[Assistive technology|accessibility]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Allam |first1=Zaheer |last2=Sharifi |first2=Ayyoob |last3=Bibri |first3=Simon Elias |last4=Jones |first4=David Sydney |last5=Krogstie |first5=John |date=July 8, 2022 |title=The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures |journal=Smart Cities |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=771–801 |doi=10.3390/smartcities5030040 |issn=2624-6511 |doi-access=free|hdl=11250/3051264 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

=== Lack of adoption ===
{{As of|2023}}, there has been little adoption of Metaverse technology, with Decentraland, a platform claiming to be the metaverse, reporting that it had 8,000 daily users or fewer.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lawler |first=Richard |date=2022-10-13 |title=Decentraland's billion-dollar "metaverse" reportedly had 38 active users in one day |url=https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/13/23402418/decentraland-metaverse-empty-38-users-dappradar-wallet-data |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=The Verge |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Ed Zitron]] in ''[[Business Insider]]'' and Marc Olinga in ''The Street'' declared the Metaverse a fad that was "dead", having been displaced by [[artificial intelligence]] as the current hot new trend in computing.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zitron |first=Ed |author-link=Ed Zitron |title=RIP Metaverse, we hardly knew ye |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/metaverse-dead-obituary-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-tech-fad-ai-chatgpt-2023-5 |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Olinga |first=Marc |date=18 March 2023 |title=Mark Zuckerberg Quietly Buries the Metaverse |url=https://www.thestreet.com/technology/mark-zuckerberg-quietly-buries-the-metaverse |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=The Street}}</ref>