Tag: metaverse

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Business & Society

Metaverse Garbage: Fast Food’s Impact on Health

The recent launch of McDonald's "Happy Place" in the metaverse has sparked a heated debate about the impact of digital innovation on public health. Other major fast-food chains like KFC, Chipotle, Starbucks, and Domino's are also embracing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and interactive experiences to revolutionize how they interact with customers. However, overshadowing these developments is a significant and pressing concern.
Cryptobeyer

McDonald's "Happy Place" allows teenagers to immerse themselves in a digital realm where they can play games and earn McDonald's food rewards. "Play and earn fries…"

What’s more?

Fast food chains such as KFC, Chipotle, Starbucks, and Domino's are using the metaverse to offer interactive experiences to customers. KFC provides virtual tours of its kitchens where users can learn about cooking and try making fried chicken. Chipotle lets customers visit virtual restaurants to customize orders and socialize, with features like loyalty programs and games such as "Burrito Builder" on platforms like Roblox. Starbucks has virtual coffee shops where customers can customize drinks and learn about different brewing methods. Domino's allows customers to enter virtual restaurants to customize pizzas and track orders in real-time, using augmented reality to see their pizzas before ordering.

The web3 space is optimistic about these advancements. Major brands utilizing fourth industrial revolution technologies will increase public awareness, acceptance, and trust in emerging technologies. For example, by using digital collectibles and virtual worlds for marketing, brands can create more engaging and personalized customer experiences. Incorporating digital rewards into loyalty programs will likely encourage more people to participate in the digital economy.

Additionally, leveraging popular social media trends can increase the reach and impact of these initiatives. Recently, McDonald's launched a promotional campaign featuring the "Grimace Shake," which quickly gained viral popularity on platforms like TikTok, amassing billions of views. I call it Grimace Garbage.

However, it's evident how these technologies are gradually transforming retail operations and we are seeing wider adoption of blockchain across various industries.

However, these advancements also raise critical considerations for public health. The concept of teenagers earning fast food through a virtual game raises concerns. Fast food is notorious for its high levels of fat, sugar, and salt, contributing to obesity, diabetes, and other health issues. Encouraging consumption through engaging metaverse platforms are exacerbating these problems. Not solving them.

Here are the sad facts!

Rates of overweight and obesity among teenagers have been rising rapidly, especially in low- and middle-income countries undergoing a "nutrition transition" towards Western-style diets high in fat and sugar.

There’s more bad news.

The high levels of physical inactivity among teenagers globally is a major public health concern, increasing risks of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other health issues

“Let’s keep these teens hooked…” said fast-food companies when they doubled down on the metaverse hype.

Teenagers' eating and lifestyle habits need to improve, and earning fries sitting down is not the answer.

This development is a mixed bag—a leap forward in technology yet a step back for our health. As we embark on this digital journey, let's prioritize the well-being of our younger generation. While I support having fun in the metaverse, it should promote healthy choices and positive habits, rather than amplify unhealthy temptations.

Categories
Business & Society

The Metaverse Isn’t Dead- It’s Just Getting Real

Just 2 years ago, the metaverse was the shit. Facebook rebranded as Meta, VR headsets were improving rapidly, and we thought we’d soon be living in fully digital worlds. But lately, the hype has cooled. I would say that what we were going for was killed in action. Now it’s evolving into something more practical and seamlessly integrated into our daily lives.
Cryptobeyer

Reports claim that the metaverse market is set to grow from $65.5 billion in 2022 to an estimated $936.0 billion to $1,303.4 billion by 2030. Asia Pacific leads the charge, driven by tech advances and digitization in countries like India and China. But…

…we once imagined spending all our time in virtual spaces. We were supposed to be working, playing, and socializing in a fully digital universe. That vision turned out to be way ahead of its time. The reality check hit when we realized current technology wasn’t ready to support such an immersive experience. Now, instead of creating entirely new worlds, we’re focusing on enhancing our existing one.

We’re about to be wearing smart glasses that overlay directions on the street as we walk. We will be using an app to see how a new couch would look in our living room before we buy it. I am sure you are seeing it! This is the new direction—mixing digital elements with our physical world. The metaverse is not about escaping reality but enhancing it.

To be honest, I was wondering who would want to be hanging out in the blockchain-based virtual reality called Sandbox which looks like a Roblox reality. But when I consider the fact that most users of the metaverse are below the age of 16, I get why money-hungry Snoop Dog built a crib there.

Schools are revolutionizing learning with augmented reality, letting students explore history and science in ways textbooks can’t. Surgeons are using AR to visualize anatomy in real-time, boosting precision in operations. Workplaces are evolving too. Platforms like Spatial and Meta’s Horizon Workrooms can turn the most boring remote meeting into a laugh. I also hear arts and research will evolve with this tech. Virtual stores and malls will transform shopping.

Hear me yawn, when I say that advertising will be personalized.

What’s bad news?

McDonald’s is about to launch a Metaverse in Singapore to meet the needs of their young customers. Apparently, they will be able to earn fries when playing games. Hum… I do not want my daughter to sit still and earn fries doing it… I digress.

What’s cool?

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses will help me find parking spaces.

However, I wonder if I ever will be interested in getting a digital twin or care what clothes I wear online. But I will be trying out an AI girlfriend to finally get a date...

One thing is clear, we’re heading toward a future where we will not differentiate between our online and offline lives.

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Business & Society

Who Are You in the Future?

A virtual you and a real you. Hang on! Who are we really? Our sense of selves is rapidly turning individualistic and complex. Who are we in the future?

KEY TAKEAWAYS
The fourth industrial revolution is quickly changing our sense of self. Hyper-personalization and technology provide new ways of identifying ourselves. Our identity is no longer just based on reality as our digital selves are kidnapping our attention. What is real and what is not may cause an identity confusion.

If we travel back in time to prehistoric humans, the group was particularly important for our survival. Man originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago and it took about 100,000 years before we left Africa. During these first 100,000 years humans lived as hunters and gatherers. Man lived largely as nomads and formed bans or groups of 20–40 people and their focus for survival was to get along within the group. Everyone had his or her own sense of identity within the group. Some were strong hunters, and some were observants scouts looking for threats. Anthropologists claim that societies were largely egalitarian and with no dominant rulers. They can be claimed to have been people without politics. The key point is that a considerable part of humans back then were not highly influenced by social/cultural development.

In short one may claim that the development of human social organization started as band societies and then turned into tribe societies where they started to settle down and grow their own food instead of hunting. Some 7,500 years ago cheifdoms started to emerge and people started to organize themselves into thousands. It was not until about 5,000–6,000 years ago that a version of the first states appeared. Since then we are accustomed to partly identify ourselves with our national citizenship and its language and culture.

Our sense of identity is shaped by social interactions, ethnicity, language, and cultural preferences as well as by technological developments.

It is scary how short of time the so-called modern human has lived. It was not until about 1750 that the first industrial revolution started. It’s even more scary to consider how greatly the fourth industrial revolution have shaped our sense of identity. Consider this question.

Are we shaping our digital identity or are we shaped by our digital identity?

Since the inception of the fourth industrial revolution in 2014 human sense of identity has gone through rapid developments. The trend towards hyper-individualization started in web2 as we started self-tracking through social media. Suddenly it was normal behavior to take selfies… As our digital identity started to emerge, we quickly chose which community we identified ourselves with. We showed our identity by joining communities online or used hashtags. Fitness enthusiast posted photos of their bodies and those sharing the identity as a foodie presented their cooking skills in social media. At some point our strife to find and show off ourselves took a bad turn. Our digital selves kidnapped our real selves by using notifications and likes to make us addicted to our online existence. Suddenly our real self is not enough and we develop a need to check our avatar to get more approval for our sense of identity.

In web3 our sense of identity will be even more individualized. We will need to own digital clothes that are presentable for our professional and personal selves. It will be important to consider how we present ourselves in the metaverse and our sense of self will expand to a digital self. Some will live through their online sense of selves.

The question is when it all gets unhealthy!?

Having a sense of self is a key component of mental health. How much will it matter if we have the wrong kind of shirt at a professional digital meeting? It is also important to consider how fragile our sense of self is as we measure ourselves through a digital existence through likes and virtual approval. As hyper-individualization is taking over we will have unlimited ways of finding and showing off our sense of selves. Gone are the days when it was more than enough to be a hunter gatherer.

We do not have to be dystopian to be worried about our future selves that also need to consider who we are in a pretend world. Or is web3 reality? I have one message to my future self. I am neither what I identify with in reality or in the virtual world. I am not something of life. I am life.

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Business & Society

Mind-boggling spending habits in the metaverse

Spending habits in the metaverse

The emerging market of the metaverse is creating mind-boggling business models. Who would have thought we will have a digital self to care for? Perhaps your digital avatar would like a jacket designed by Burberry!? How about a pair of fresh kicks to wear at the online concert?

As our existence will increasingly turn digital, we will soon have an online avatar that is representing ourselves. We will have a digital professional and personal identity to care for in the metaverse and the retail sector is identifying a trillion-dollar future marketplace.

McKinsey has estimated that the metaverse could generate $4-$5 trillion by 2030. Metaverse entrepreneurship is on the rise, and the retail sector is guessing which metaverse will be most successful and profitable. Brands such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger are investing in digital fashion products to equip our virtual selves. Some say there will be more than 10,000 virtual worlds and the biggest ones now days, are The Sandbox, Decentraland and Voxels and Horizon Worlds.

Decentraland has a market valuation of $1.2 billion and has a dedicated area for fashion retail. A real estate developer has invested $912,228 to buy land to build a virtual version of Tokyo’s famous “Harajuku” district to rent shops out to retailers. A retail group K11 is taking a chance at The Sandbox and has purchased a considerable area. The average price of one Sandbox land is around $2,300 but prices jump considerably if it’s an attractive area where lots of users will be present. MetaMetric Solutions estimated that real estate sales on the four major metaverse platforms reached $501 million in 2021.

However, those looking forward to buying a digital Louis Vuitton bag for their virtual girlfriend will have to wait.

The metaverse in full, does not exist yet. Reports suggest that one of the biggest metaverses ‘Decentraland’ only has 8,000 daily active users. It seems far off that we will spend money on the image of our digital selves, but when we are working and interacting with one another in the metaverse our image will be important. Like it or not.

So, when will we live in the metaverse? The company Meta estimated that it will take 10–15 years to complete the construction of a fully functional and publicly available metaverse with all necessary gadgets.

Until then. Enjoy the fresh outdoors.

Categories
Business & Society

Learn to earn in the metaverse

The crypto world keeps on surprising us. Nowadays we can walk on the beach or sit at home and play blockchain games and earn crypto doing it. Cool. But the most transformative development in blockchain technology will be in the metaverse.

In developing countries such as Venezuela and the Philippines kids play blockchain games such as Axie Infinity and earn enough to support their family. Lifestyle apps are offering move to earn tokens such as Stepn to pays users for walking to improve public health. It is also possible to earn crypto whilst learning about crypto as exchanges reward users for learning about trading on their platform.

But the truly ground-breaking development will be in the metaverse as it can transform traditional education. Traditional educational institutions are buying land in the metaverse and constructing buildings to make sure they are competitive in the metaverse. In the future online education will move into the metaverse and crypto will change the way educational institutions organize and finance education by using the learn to earn method of tokenomics. Confused? Tokenomics is a just a word to describe how a cryptocurrency works and a way to show how it’s valuable. When traditional institutions have established themselves in the metaverse their students will be able to choose specific courses from different schools to hyper-personalize their education. The individual can even choose to study a certain subject and hand-pick the best teachers from different institutions. Students will being able to learn unique skills learnt in faraway places and even earn crypto doing it.

Can student make money whilst studying in the metaverse?

Yes, institutions can use block-chain technology to reward students with NFT’s (non-fungible token) which can be used to purchase items or services in the metaverse. Students can even choose to sell their NFT for ordinary fiat cash to buy pasta and ketchup. Are you unsure what a NFT is? Non-fungible tokens are a financial security that consists of digital data which is stored in a blockchain. A NFT is like proof that someone owns something online and that it has value of some kind.

Conventional barriers of institution-bound education delivery can be broken in the metaverse. Student can jump between different schools as they wish. Gone will be the days with boring power-points presented online by stiff lecturers. The metaverse will offer a learning experience through virtual reality that capture the hearts and minds of young and old in ways we have not yet experienced. Learning in the metaverse will be a realistic immersive experience with considerable social interactions whilst wearing virtual reality glasses. Schools in the metaverse can create different services such as tutoring and interactive examinations through the metaverse. There will be different ways that schools compete in educational market place in the metaverse. Some educational institution may offer a highly flexible curriculum to their students, and some may offer digital assets such as NFT (and other not yet known assets) to reward student for studying.

The full force of tokenomics might even make education free in the future.

One thing is for sure, schools will launch their own crypto currency or asset.

Sure, the metaverse is a buzzword. Personal computers need to be far more powerful before the metaverse will be able to function and used by the average citizen of the world. But hold on tight! The blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, it is seeing a faster growth trajectory than the growth of Internet in the late 1990s. Don’t worry, in real life education will always exist as well, and one may claim that the metaverse is just a sexier version of the internet. Cool. Learning to earn might even be sexy.