Almost immediately after the pandemic began, my future son-in-law commented that “now our lives will just go digital” and his early prediction that our online existence would become increasingly central to our lives was eerily spot-on. For adolescents, an unavoidable life on social media can become a grueling grind, for a generation working from their bedrooms instead of expanding into a universe of work relationships, it’s depressingly limiting. What the future holds is a fair question for all of us as we start 2022. You are forgiven for forgetting that Facebook re-branded itself as Meta at the end of last year, but with Microsoft purchasing LA-based Activision because it wants to be a player in the “metaverse” it is time to grapple with what this actually means. Click here to listen to a podcast with Kevin Roose, technology columist from the New York Times, that goes beyond the buzzword to outline what the metaverse might be and what is at stake.
