The discussion of the Metaverse is being discussed due to Mark Zuckerberg’s claim to call it the world of the future. Metaverse is a combination of aspects of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), social media, and also cryptocurrencies to allow users to interact in digital reality.
“The concept of Metaverse is actually not new, because in 2003 there was already a virtual world called Second Life which offered the concept of a virtual community that could create avatars according to our wishes. The Metaverse platform was created with the aim of being able to interact and connect people without having to meet in person,”. Second Life’s success was seen when companies like the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM), as well as hundreds of other companies, flocked to set up virtual offices there. This could be the latest idea for Metaverse Education for the future.
“Meanwhile, in the world of education, Stanford, MIT, Monash are trying to create a virtual campus built using Second Life,” explained the first Professor of Media Studies in Indonesia. Although popular abroad, at that time the virtual world had not received special attention in the hearts of the Indonesian people. However, in order to open the eyes of students to the breadth of the media world in this modern era.
“The problem is still in the infrastructure because it requires a very large computer capacity and adequate internet,” he recalled. Similar to Second Life at that time, Metaverse technology should also be supported by infrastructure and a stable internet network. “It must be supported by an established infrastructure and network. If the internet as a path is not stable, it will be difficult to participate in the Metaverse,”. If you look closely, it seems that the metaverse adopted technologies such as Secondlife, SimCity, and even the Metaverse was actually inspired by science fiction novels such as Snow Crash, Ready Player One and Frankenstein.
Although similar to games, SimCity & Second Life. Metaverse is said to have significant differences with Mark Zuckerberg’s platform. “Metaverse is the development of the virtual world concepts that have ever existed. In the Metaverse World, we can buy land that is in the virtual world to be used as an investment, can work, and can have fun in the metaverse world. In the future, there may be a Metaverse University that will teach Virtual Education to future generations.
I also think that Metaverse is segmented in Indonesia. Urban youth who are accustomed to technological sophistication, have economic resources and enjoy trying new things, will become early adopters of innovation or are called early adopters. “Then, for those who are not technology literate, there may also be no resources, and still use the concepts of gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft even though digital technology has advanced, later it will be difficult to participate in this media innovation.