The Battle of the Metaverse pt.1

In this episode we lay the foundation of the metaverse and all of the excitement with it. In this multiple part series, we start part 1 by going through the foundation of the metaverse. Answering some questions about what exactly it is, what will it be like, and how does this impact you and society, among other questions.  

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Welcome to the life finance and in between podcast with me your host, Eddie Thomas, brought to you by wealth management services here in Hershey, PA. And today guys, you heard it here first, there is a battle of the metaverse. Not actually. So what's happening? And this is pretty much all I want to cover today. So if you listen to recent news, specifically coming out of what was Facebook now meta, and I talked about it briefly on the last podcast was the metaverse and what is being built out there. And it's kind of hard to even say delta because it's digital, right? So it's like not like building buildings and something tangible. You can see you can touch it, you can feel it. Something completely digital, completely new, something we've never seen before. And it's going to potentially change the way we live our lives. In the next 1015 20 years, depending on one. Everything gets kind of rolled out there slowly but surely. So after that news came out, I did a bunch of reading into the metaverse what exactly it all can be. Why should we be concerned about it? Why should we think it's really cool? What does this mean as consumers of technology? What does this mean as investors? What does this mean for businesses? What does this mean as a whole, as a society as an economy as a world? What does this mean for us? And there's a ton out there already? Facebook made this announcement, changing the meta, the whole entire landscape changed everybody and anybody is talking about the metaverse and what it's going to be in companies are now taking steps towards building out their portion of that trying to get in front of what they think this trend is going to be. And it's all really exciting stuff. Or your your number. If you listen to the last podcast, I talked about how it's actually potentially dangerous as well for younger generations when the metaverse is really all they know. So I've touched on it briefly. I've done a ton of research. And so I want to make a two part series of podcasts around the metaverse. And so what part one is going to be is we're going to answer a couple questions around what it's going to be like, who's going to be there? How does this fit into what we're doing today in society? What about real life? What happens there? How do i Are you fit into this going forward as consumers as users? Or do we fit into this, and the potential pros and cons and I'm going to kind of lay out the pros and cons as I go through. But today, what I really want to do is just laid a foundation for what we want to talk about going forward. Because after we have this first episode, don't we lay the foundation on what the metaverse is, who's going to be there? How are we going to use it, etc, etc. I'll be able to talk about specifically how businesses are going to use it and how as consumers and investors are going to be impacted by that. And there's been a bunch coming out about businesses getting into it, there's gonna be a bunch more. So hopefully, by the time the second part comes out, there's some more stuff coming out around that that side of it, and I'm able to inquire put that into the podcast. But for now, I just want to make this a two part series. I fully anticipate this being an ongoing kind of theme here where updates come through and I just kinda want to talk about them. Because really. And we'll get into the first question, what's the metaverse gonna be like? I think it's gonna be really exciting. Now, I said in the last one, but I'll say it again. Here's like the definition of what a Metaverse is. It's a virtual reality space in which users can interact with a computer generated environment and other users. It's not that it's like video games, times 10 times a million. If you've ever watched when people put on the VR goggles that Oculus put out, or meta or Microsoft has, and they get the Have you ever put on yourself you know, I'm saying it literally feels like this is like your entire surrounding like this is all you can see. It's all you're interacting with. You have the controllers in your hand. And you know, it's a game but it's hard for your brain to kind of process the fact that I'm still playing a video game. I'm still in a digital world. This isn't real life. So when like you've watched the video, it's like the people failing and falling into the wall or jumping out of the way of something or throwing the headset off. It's because in their mind and their brains like this is happening. We need to react how do we react to this? And so that's what the metaverse is going to be 24/7 you're gonna put either goggles or glasses or enter a room I'm not sure where the the science and technology is gonna go for right now. It's just you put goggles on their big bulky goggles and you could enter into different worlds. But so you put these on I'm not sure what the process is going to be entering a world but say you enter Meadows world, whoever's world You want to be a part of your own world. And you're there, and you have your digital avatar that you can make whatever you want to be, whoever you want to be in this digital world, this digital life you're building for yourself. And you can just move around and operate and play video games build a life for yourself. The opportunities are endless with regards to what you can do within it. But the idea stays consistent in the fact that this is going to be like a second life for some. Because once you put those goggles on and you enter the world, you're this is you now you're a whole nother person, your whatever that digital avatar is. And so if people are spending a ton of time there, it's going to be pretty cumbersome on on them mentally, just to kind of go between what real life is and what this digital life is and, and try to draw the, the differences between the two, I'll be interested to see how that works. But that's really what it is you just enter into this world, and you are completely and trance engulfed, and what you are doing there, and you think and your brains gonna think that's all this, I mean, it's gonna feel way more inclusive than a video game can ever feel. And it's going to be more than a video game to a lot of people put the goggles on, you step into this, I will say a portal, you enter this world. And that's you now you live the life you want to live, you play the games you want to play for as long as you want to play him. And so who's going to be there? And it's whoever else has those goggles on it potentially could be everyone. Because when I say it out loud, and if you're listening, there's no way people are going to put these goggles on and live in these virtual worlds for 468 10 hours at a time maybe even more. If you think there's no way. I am of the opposite opinion, I think there's a very, very good chance that this is going to be adopted very quickly. And people are going to fall in love with the idea of being in a digital world. And doing whatever they want and being whoever they want to be, which is the pro side of it. Like it sounds really fun. You can do whatever you want be whoever you want to be build community there, which is going to be great. And it can be a really positive and environment, a space where people the concept of is if so many people are they're dedicating so much of their time to Metaverse, I get worried that it's going to be too much and might actually have a handle on real life society down the line. Who knows. But I do have concerns about that. Because really, as long as you have these goggles, and I'm not sure whatever structure is gonna be in place for you to pay for the get into the worlds or whatever it may be. If you can get in, if you're the goggles, if you have the technology you need. You could be a part of the metaverse and you could do whatever you want. You can build within there, you can just go in other people's world you can play whatever games you want to play. So the idea of who is it going to be I don't think it's going to be stuck to just younger people. I know in the last one I said younger generations had to be wary of this. And that's only because I think if we're putting anyone toward playing this or not, yeah, playing this too much, it's going to be younger generations. But older generations can be just as a part of it as well. And play just as big as there won't be on just as much. So it really can just reach everyone. Because the only barriers you have to buy is technology. That's goggles, and then you learn how to do it. And you get to be whoever you want to be. There's gonna be a lot of people of all ages that take up take you up on that offer. So how exactly does this fit into since society? I said how we get there, I said what it's going to be what's pretend to everyone and everyone, everyone and anyone is in this world, digital Metaverse world how's it fit into society? And in the beginning, it's going to be so it's going to go in stages potentially, in the beginning, it's going to be just a small number of people that go into this Metaverse that build out whatever they want to build out there, play the games and want to play. And it's going to be confined to that kind of smaller amount of people. Over time, this is going to increase greatly. And I think that's one way we're going to start seeing people be there 10 1214 hours a day. And they just rather be there than then in real life because they enjoy it they don't want. And so over time, with the potential of everybody having that same idea that over time they're going to be in their more and more like that world more and more not want to be participating in real life as much because that is now their real life inside the digital world. I think we're gonna have to see the metaverse and the real life society that we know now mesh together. And I'm not sure what that looks like. I can't even begin to explain how that's going to work because it's hard to wrap your mind around But I think it is going to be something that meshes together that anywhere you are you can just enter this. You could be in line for Starbucks. And you could just enter into the metaverse until your orders up. Or you can be it passenger in a car and the entire time you're just in the metaverse, you're at work. You're on lunch break. You're in the metaverse, maybe your job is being in the metaverse, you have a job within there. There's there's so many possibilities there are literally endless. And because of that, I think we're going to see real life and digital life mesh together, and somehow someway, hopefully, find some cohesion between the two, where it's not neither one's too detrimental to the other, and they kind of work in a perfect balance. Now that's in a perfect world. Do I think that's going to be the case? I don't know. I don't. And we need towards No, because it's just going to be another thing that kind of half the people get it half the people don't. No one really knows how to tackle this kind of thing, because the technologies never been there before, like it is now. And so it's going to be a learning curve. I think once we go through that learning curve, we had the potential for it to be pretty productive. But I think we have to go through a very steep learning curve first. And so with this, does real life go away? Long, long term? Yes. And no, you might be listening, I think I'm absolutely crazy for saying that. And a year ago, I would agree with you that I sound insane. But after doing the research after seeing how many people already love the VR aspect and AR augmented reality, and they haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what it's going to turn into. I think parts of real life are going to go away. I think a lot of people are going to build communities and their groups on the metaverse in this digital world, and they're gonna get to a point where they'd much rather spend their time there than they would in real life meeting up with friends they have in real life, or they the friends have in real life will also be online with them. So there's no need to go out down the street anymore to meet for coffee or some food or something because let's just meet the metaverse and do whatever we want to do there. And I guess the precursors to how and why I think that way is because we already see the adoption of video games amount of time people spend on those. And we also see the adoption of social media and the the unbelievable amount of time people spend on that obsessed with other people's lives on a digital medium. So I do think when that digital medium becomes as inclusive as it can be, and as interactive as it can be, and as addicting as it can be. I think that's when we start to see real life and the digital world meshed together to the point where real life parts of it go away. I'm not going to put a timeline on that. I don't know the timeline. I don't think anyone could put a timeline on that. But I think that is potentially how this plays out is where you see parts of your real life or people will see parts of their real life. Fade to being non existent. And the digital world and life they build for themselves will take over in those cases. Which is an insane thought to even have heard or say out loud. But it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Absolutely. And so you might be asking yourself, I've definitely asked myself, How do I fit into this? What is going to be happening? How is this going to work? And that's really up to you, isn't it? If you want to adopt the technology and go into this digital world, live the life you want to live do the things you want to do. Then you fit into it pretty easy, right? You just go ahead you put the headset on you go find your friends there and you build out this life you want to live if you aren't on that same wavelength and you're not really amped up for the this digital life and you think it's crazy and you'll never do it then it might not really impact you. I think we're really really really far away from you having this impact you on an everyday basis. If you don't want it to, like for social media use don't You don't download the apps you're avoiding. If you want to play video games, just don't play video games. I think for now it's the same way with the metaverse. I think long term on unfortunately, unfortunately, depending on who you're talking to. There's the potential for the metaverse to kind of bleed into real life even if you don't want it to. Even if you have no say or no desire for it to for it to bleed into your life, unfortunately, it might be able to and so I kind of I had to lay down this foundation and part one because of how Crazy, this technology might be in the long term, and both exciting and non exciting ways. I'm excited because it is something we've never seen before. It's something that's incredibly interesting. And I'm really hoping to be used for good to create communities that you might not have been able to create before to bring people together that wouldn't be able to be come together before for people to have fun, enjoy their time and get get an escape if they need one. Not excited because it is it has a chance to be incredibly addicting, which is obviously a downturn of it. People might like living there more than like living in real life. And that kind of makes me sad for those people and society in general. And I think people's may spend too much time and I don't know what that means for humans going forward, like, make a reference to the movie Wally, if you've ever seen, there's people just kind of floating around and chairs and not living healthy lifestyles and just being obsessed with the screen in front of them. And if you think in like the most crazy way possible, that might be reality, a long time from now if everyone's out obsessed with it. So I get nervous about that part of it. We're really far away from that. But if you think super, super long term, that's a potential. And so that worries me as well. But so I really wanted to break down this part here and just go through what is going to be like, who's going to be there, what the potential is for us as users, and kind of just start the thinking around the metaverse. So in part two, I can go into exactly well, not exactly, but what I think might this do to the economy, how this bleeds together, and also as consumers as investors, how does this impact us? And then businesses, what are the steps they taking today? And what are the steps they might take tomorrow to capitalize on this space that no one's ever seen before, but will play a role in our in some lives of the people that decide to take it as a part of their life. So thanks for listening guys. I was really excited to come on here and talk about this. And I'm excited to get Part Two out to you guys. So stay tuned. I'm filming this right before Thanksgiving. So Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a good one and is happy and enjoys your time so stay happy guys. Stay healthy. I'll see you guys in the next one.