Briar Prestidge viewing Aurora Borealis, The Northern Lights on Altspace in the self-made … [+]
Self-proclaimed Web3 evangelist and entrepreneur Briar Prestidge says that discussing the Metaverse today is akin to discussing the Internet in the 1990s. Prestidge says many people could not comprehend how the Internet would evolve and transform how we live, work, learn and socialize.
To prove her point, Prestidge locked herself into a hotel room with one camera crew; and for 48 hours she immersed herself in virtual reality (VR) across metaverse platforms visting 33 different metaverse worlds. In her travels, she also interviewed 21 metaverse and VR creators, including a human behaviorist, who offered insights into the Metaverse’s ethics, behaviors, drivers and applications. The result is a 50-minute docu-film, 48 hours in the Metaverse, giving viewers a taste of what the Metaverse can do and make you feel.
“The Metaverse is currently in its nascent stages, rapidly evolving from gaming environments such as Fortnite and Roblox to having profound business implications, said Prestidge. “
“With the growth of NFTs, cryptocurrencies and the development of interoperability such as ReadyPlayerMe’s avatars across various metaverses has opened a score of business opportunities in terms of products, services, processes, as well as customer and employee experiences,” added Prestidge.
Prestidge is no stranger to some of those services. She created a line of NFT Powersuits for women in Decentraland earlier this year in 2o22.
Prestidge believes the Metaverse offers something that the Internet has yet to do – experience ourselves as entirely different identities than who we are in real life.
By 2026, Gartner estimates that 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in a metaverse. A recent study found that one-third of U.S. adults fear the Metaverse and what it offers rather than viewing it as a positive development. An additional 58 % felt they needed to learn more about the Metaverse or how it works to have an opinion.
“No one knows precisely what the metaverse will entail or become, but VR creators and monetizers are starting to form some ideas,” said Prestidge.
Prestidge ‘stopped by’ Nikeland in the Roblox metaverse which has 21 million visitors. “To Gen Z and Alpha, what’s happening in the Metaverse is as vital to them as real life. They may skip over what we know as social media and go straight to the Metaverse instead.”
Awareness
To anticipate and potentially avoid some of the ethical, social and economic pitfalls of the Metaverse and identify ways in which the Metaverse can help solve real-life problems. Prestidge says the industry needs to start a broader dialogue with consumers, investors, businesses, scientists, teachers, healthcare providers and lawmakers instead of waiting until the technology has already been fully rolled out.
Prestidge hopes the documentary will open up conversations about climate change, social interactions and women’s issues.
“How the Metaverse help address climate change by reducing the consumption of valuable resources by purchasing NFTs instead of spending thousands of dollars and wasting water, energy, and other natural resources to produce and manufacture luxury goods and other unessential items?” said Prestidge. “Will the ability to interact in VR with others around the world increase our ability to empathize with others, or as we have seen with social media, will it increase isolation and lessen our ability to interact with real people with civility even if we disagree on core issues. These are some of the questions I believe need to be addressed.”
Prestidge says her experience illustrates that the desire for community drives the Metaverse. “There is a massive misconception that the metaverse is technology, but it’s more about how we interact with technology. It’s about community and having an immersive, shared experience,” said Prestidge.
“It allows people to be interconnected across the world [..], and the Metaverse gives people a better opportunity to communicate and interact with those far away,” said Prestidge. “Social media [..] is not social anymore – it is more about likes and endless scrolling than connecting and socializing with each other.”
“As we have recently seen on Twitter, social media has become more about divisiveness and incivility rather than finding a place where you feel a sense of belonging and connection to others,” added Prestidge.
“We can only address such questions if we fundamentally understand what the Metaverse is and possess a basic knowledge of how it works,” said Prestidge.
Prestige says that we can not fully understand the true power and potential of VR and Metaverse platforms unless the average person experiences it for themselves and starts asking crucial questions about how it can be used to solve complex problems and the underlying ethical, legal, logistical, and social issues associated with it.
In one of the Metaverse worlds in the documentary, Prestige visited Microsoft’s re-creation of the riots that took place at New York City’s Stonewall Inn in 1969, explored the digital twin of the Dubai Expo 2020 Al Wasl Dome, and explored the Uluru Kata National Park for the United Nations Day of Social Justice.
“All of these experiences add not only to our understanding of human history and unique cultural experiences but also enhance our involvement with each other and what it means to be part of a community,” said Prestige.
Community
Prestidge believes the Metaverse can help with creating a sense of global community from boosting women’s safety and inclusion to encouraging a focus on mental health.
“What if those who had a vested interest in women’s rights, for example, could meet at a virtual cafe weekly to discuss issues of common concern, such as reproductive rights?” said Prestidge. “Drawing on the different experiences and challenges women face around the globe and how they have worked to address them would provide hope and practical advice and counsel to others in the group, no matter where they live.
“We already see this taking place in the Metaverse at the Foremothers Cafe, the world’s first VR cafe based on a historic 19th-century novel Sour Milk in Sheep’s Wool bringing together women to discuss feminist issues,” adds Prestidge.
In healthcare, Rocket Health launched a series of VR studies to explore effective ways to treat mental health issues by working directly with board-certified health professionals and hospitals.
In the 48 Hours in the Metaverse documentary, Prestidge spoke with Heather Bucalos, a nurse and a two-time cancer survivor. Bucalos used VR during her stem cell treatment to help her cope with pain by offering her a tranquil environment that allowed her to meditate and practice pain management tips in real time.
“The ability to see, hear, and even smell the beach, waves, and salty air in VR made it much easier for Heather to get into her meditative state more quickly to allow for faster and more effective pain relief, said Prestidge. “RocketHealth VR also offers chronically ill patients the opportunity to engage in guided live support groups to share a common experience wherever they live and provide the mental health, spiritual support and deep relationships that have proven essential for severely ill patients’ survival.”
Forty-eight hours in the Metaverse cost $50,000 to produce and was funded by Prestidge and her agency, the Prestidge Group. The documentary is available on YouTube.