danah boyd & Morgan Ames on the Future of the Metaverse
BCNM experts alum danah boyd (Founder, Data & Society, and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Georgetown University) and Morgan Ames (Assistant Adjunct Professor School of Information, and Associate Director Center for Science, Technology, and Medicine in Society) featured in Elon University's report on "The Future of the Metaverse."
Morgan writes:
"A vital element of this is virtual reality’s inability to blend with commitments and attention needs in real life. When we use our mobile phones or other devices, we still have ambient awareness of our environment and can generally be easily interrupted. This kind of use blends with caretaking duties and other practices of care that shape many people’s lives. Virtual reality, in contrast, removes that ambient awareness. Indeed, there are plenty of videos of people with VR headsets tripping over their toddlers, and the vaporware videos that Meta has put out about the metaverse exhibit this as well – even as they try to pitch it as a ‘plus’ for people to escape real life."
Read the full report here!