Having spent a fair amount of the last month looking into the metaverse, or metaverses, I’m increasingly convinced that it’s going to be huge and Web3 is here to stay. Ways of interacting are about to change and, as with all things tech, it’s the young who are leading the way and will be the most impacted by it. 

We can debate the pros and cons of this, especially when it comes to keeping children safe and helping them thrive in this new world, but I think we’re past the point of no return and need to understand the metaverse in order to maximise the benefits and mitigate against the potential dangers.

There’s undoubtedly an enormous opportunity for brands to connect people in virtual space in a way that will make video calls seem like snail mail, but we are sensory beings and as great as the metaverse can be, it will only involve 2, possibly 3 of our senses. Vision and hearing are the two most important senses for the metaverse experience so it’s already proving challenging for people who do not have full use of those senses. 

The role of the other senses should not be underestimated in what makes for positive human experiences and the danger is that the metaverse becomes rather sterile without the smells of the ocean or the taste of a fresh-baked pizza, shared with friends and family. Memory making, the bedrock of attachment and belonging, is a multi-sensory activity – so it’s going to be that much harder to create healthy, memorable connections with people in the metaverse – the visual and auditory senses that we are relying on will have to work so much harder to embed themselves in our brains as positive, memorable interactions. 

Quite what the longer-term impact of this sensory deprivation, or at least sensory limitation, will be is, as yet unknown. One thing is sure though, the impacts will be greater on those whose senses and processing of sensory stimuli are still developing – i.e. children!  Richard Louvre has done a great deal of work on Nature Deficit Disorder and I want to understand whether experiencing natural features in the metaverse will help inner-city kids feel more connected and suffer less from Nature-Deficit Disorder, or whether the multi-sensory experience of being in natural surroundings are un-replicable when only stimulating a person’s eyes and ears. 

My advice to parents and educators hadn’t changed with the advent of the Metaverse – give your children a balanced play diet and ensure they are spending plenty of time away from screens, interacting with other people in real life and getting out into the real world. If you’re doing this, then the Metaverse may become a fun, safe place to play digitally but we’re not there yet.