Why Facebook's Metaverse Might Be A Big Mistake

Summary

• Facebook had a tough ride this week with its outage and the whistleblower affair, but in this article, I want to focus on the long-term plans of the company.
• Mark Zuckerberg thinks that in five years, Facebook will be known as "a metaverse company".
• But their first step in this direction, Horizon Workrooms, looks more like a VR competitor of Zoom than anything else.
• Even more important, the very idea of the metaverse seems unlikely to rhyme with Facebook's most valuable asset: its social network.
• Investors in Facebook should take a good hard look at the diversification plans of the company.

Дмитрий Ларичев/iStock via Getty Images

Facebook (FB) has been in the news headlines quite a lot during the last couple of weeks. First, whistleblower Frances Haugen claimed that when there were conflicts of interest between Facebook and the public, the company time and time again chose to optimize for its own interests. Also, the afternoon-long outage which Facebook experienced last Monday was an unprecedented event, which logically leads to questions about the stability and the safety of its technology.

These events have not been positive for the company, but in this article, I want to focus on the long term. Though not that much in the news recently, the plans which Facebook has for their involvement in the metaverse are of utmost importance for the future of this social media company.

Plans for the metaverse

Mark Zuckerberg thinks the metaverse will be the next big thing. It was already clear that the company was aiming to invest in VR and the software technology of the future, but during an investors' call last July, he specifically took the time to explain Facebook's (FB) ambitions with regard to the metaverse:

In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company. In many ways, the metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology. Think of the metaverse as an immersive virtual world where people can spend time together and hang out, much like you can do today with virtual reality, dialed up to 11. You’ll be able to “teleport" between different experiences.

Zuckerberg makes it very clear: Facebook has the ambition to become a metaverse company.

In fact, during the latest earnings call, he mentioned the term metaverse sixteen times, versus only once for the company's current lifeblood, advertising.

What is this metaverse?

The metaverse sounds like a very nerdy concept, and it might be. But it is an essential part in understanding the direction Facebook wants to go with their company. In this chapter, I will do my best to describe the metaverse concisely but without leaving out essential parts of information.

If you ever saw the movie Ready Player One, you already were provided a glimpse of how a part of the metaverse might look like. In this movie, in 2045, much of the earth's population uses OASIS, a virtual reality simulation to escape the real world. Protagonist Wade Watts searches for an easter egg in the OASIS so he could inherit the game creator's fortune.

In the movie the Matrix, a situation in which VR has completely taken over is shown. In this movie, a world is shown where humanity is held prisoner in a virtual reality, which has been created by robots and machines. This virtual reality, which looks pretty much like our normal world, has been designed to look like reality so these machines can use our bodies as a source of energy.

But enough about movies, the metaverse is going to be so much more than only virtual reality. Among its likely characteristics are that it will encompass a fully-fledged economy, be an experience that spans both the physical and the digital world, and offer interoperability (meaning that you can use avatars or other digital assets with different applications).

Currently, there already exist many applications which can and likely will be integrated into the metaverse eventually:

• Email and other ways to communicate digitally.
• Video games with their more and more immersive experiences.
• Sports trackers connecting physical activities and data to the virtual world.
• The 'internet of things', in which many machines in our homes and offices are connected to the internet (and in the future likely the metaverse), and send and receive information from it.
• Virtual currency.

The metaverse is best understood as a 'successor to the mobile internet'. Mobile internet was already a vastly different world from internet which could only be accessed using a fixed-line. Nowadays people can access the internet with the click of a button, from anywhere at any time. Even though most internet traffic is still transmitted through fixed infrastructure, we should recognize that the mobile internet is a large leap forward from fixed-line internet. The metaverse again takes this a step further. It will not replace the internet, but build upon and transform it.

In the metaverse, everyone will be placed inside an 'embodied' version of the internet, nearly permanently. We will constantly be within the internet rather than only being able to access it from time to time.

One of the best definitions I could find is the following:

The Metaverse is an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D worlds and simulations that support continuity of identity, objects, history, payments, and entitlements, and can be experienced synchronously by an effectively unlimited number of users, each with an individual sense of presence

What the metaverse is not:

• Virtual reality: Virtual reality can be a part of the metaverse or an important application of it, but not the whole experience.
• A user-generated virtual world: Same as the above, a user-generated virtual world (like Facebook) can be a part of the metaverse, but only a part of it.
• A video game: Of course, video games can be fully integrated in the metaverse, and many games currently look like they are some of the closest representations of the metaverse currently available (for instance Fortnite). But those games will be in the metaverse, they are not the metaverse itself.

As Matthew Ball on his website describes in great detail:

The metaverse is best defined as a network of interconnected experiences and applications, devices and products, tools and infrastructure.

As he continues to describe (original is from the same source but adapted a bit to focus on only the most important information):

The full metaverse is a distant future vision where different virtual worlds come together into a single integrated online world which is by itself integrated in the physical world. Identities, human connections, and financial assets are the same online and offline, and these are interoperable among different communities and applications within the metaverse. This will not be a single website or operator but a linked world consisting of a large number of environments, like the internet already has. The interoperability of the metaverse is the key to this.

This means that the metaverse is more a framework than a tool by itself, more an assembly of experiences than an application. Whatever it will look like, it will change and hopefully improve our digital experiences in the future. The real immersive experience of the metaverse is likely decades away and will be built by many different companies over time, though many pieces and components that could be integrated into it already exist.

Horizon Workrooms: a first step into the metaverse?

With a virtual reality press meeting, Facebook showed a preview of a new application, which is described as an 'open beta' for the Oculus Quest. The application is called Horizon Workrooms, and it is Facebook's first attempt at creating a VR experience for the office. Please take a look at the commercial here if you're interested in having an unbiased view before you read on.

Source: screenshot from Facebook Horizon Workrooms promotional video

Let me first start with some positive points about Horizon Workrooms: it is a very nicely made VR application, and it has many innovative features which probably need user training and adaption before you can use them well, but are interesting, such as the virtual keyboard. Facebook clearly put a lot of work in Horizon Workrooms. I worked in software development myself, so I know how difficult these projects can be.

What I do not understand though, is why Facebook is selling this as a step in the direction of the metaverse. When I look at Horizon Workrooms it looks like it can be a competitor for conference call services like Zoom (ZM) or Microsoft Teams (MSFT). Yes, you need a headset to use Workrooms, and yes it is a real VR experience, but it has nothing to do with the metaverse. Of course, it could eventually be integrated into it, but that's a wholly different story.

Speaking for myself, when I'm participating in a virtual meeting, video works just fine. I prefer the sights of real people instead of clumsy, cartoonesque animation figures without emotions and without legs. Also, usually, I am focused on the content of the meeting instead of how the meeting room looks, though VR is a cool feature. If somebody wants to share content, this can be done with Zoom, Teams, or Slack (WORK, CRM) very easily, and you do not need to learn to type a virtual keyboard or wear a headset for that.

Source: screenshot from Facebook Horizon Workrooms promotional video

Also, the biggest issue which I have with Workrooms, is that more than 70% of human communication is non-verbal. By downgrading humans to cartoon characters, this communication gets lost. Because of this, Horizon Workrooms seems like the sociopath's version of a digital meeting tool.

Next to these problems, Workrooms currently still has many bugs. Also, much is still unknown, like what the business model is (VR headsets? Ads?) and how the application integrates with the systems and software of other companies.

One of the most telling comments about Horizon Workrooms was made by Mark Zuckerberg himself:

“Five years from now,” Zuckerberg predicted, “people are going to be able to live where they want and work from wherever they want – but are going to be able to feel present as if they’re together when they’re doing that.”

Well, Mark, I hate to pop your bubble, but this already happened. In 2020. And with tools other than Horizon Workrooms. The application seems to answer a customer need that is already being met by video conference calls, just not in VR yet.

Oculus, Facebook and Zuckerberg

To better put Horizon Workrooms in perspective, we should consider where it all started for Facebook. In 2014, Facebook took over the VR headset company Oculus for a bit more than $2 billion. At that time, Zuckerberg stated that he saw VR as a new communication platform that would be able to take a prominent place in the current media world. Until now, this has not happened.

Since then, Facebook invested a lot of money in VR. It is estimated that almost a fifth of Facebook employees currently work in VR or AR, which are more than 10,000 people. Zuckerberg often vocalized his fascination with VR and how he believes it will change the world. Together with his more recent passion for the metaverse, this aligns well with the development of Horizon Workrooms.

Please bear with me here. I am not saying that virtual reality will not become a success. I am also not saying that it won't be a part of the metaverse. Very likely these two things will happen. What I am saying is that Facebook is focusing very heavily on VR as part of the metaverse, which is just a small part with corresponding market size.

The metaverse and Facebook's current ad-driven source of revenue

At the moment, Facebook is an incredible cashflow-producing machine, one of the best the world has ever seen. But it seems likely that the incredible dominance which Facebook currently enjoys in the advertising market cannot last forever. Other competitors might become more important, even larger legal challenges might surface, anything might happen. This is probably why the company is trying to reinvent itself, which is a good thing.

But let us discuss the metaverse a bit more. The current most valuable assets of Facebook are its users, the links and connections between them, and the content they create. In the metaverse, where every content and application is interoperable, and we all have identities, everyone can open a space anywhere and share pictures, videos, or other content on it. The Facebook application might be a part of it, but it will most likely become less prominent quite quickly because of this. The metaverse in its pure version completely undermines Facebook's revenue model.

Facebook thrives with its closed user experience controlled by its engineers and administrators. This is the way in which they created their powerful databases of customer information which have enabled them to become an advertisement leader. This closed experience directly contradicts the openness of the metaverse. Also, remember that the metaverse will be so large and extensive that it will be almost impossible for a single company to build it all. Creating a fully-fledged Facebook version of the metaverse is thus extremely unlikely.

So unless Facebook is trying to build a very limited and top-down Facebook metaverse in which they will build the sole backbone and need all users to create Facebook accounts and identities (in which case one would start to argue whether we could still call it 'the' metaverse), the company is shooting itself in its own foot with their metaverse investments.

The metaverse might be Facebook's biggest mistake

Currently, the advertising business of Facebook is firing on all cylinders. But with the current example of Horizon Workrooms, Facebook's first step in the direction of the metaverse, it seems not all is right.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns a majority of votes of Facebook, so it is important for investors to pay close attention to how he thinks about the future plans of Facebook. His enthusiasm for VR and the metaverse are obvious. But the acquisition of Oculus and the subsequent lack of tangible results from this investment have led to much emphasis being placed on Horizon Workrooms, which seems like a possible competitor for Zoom and MS Teams at best.

These developments seem to indicate that Facebook is very eager to move in the metaverse direction, but for investors, the lack of results is troubling. Also, the ad-driven business model of Facebook will, by definition, not work in the metaverse, unless Facebook is trying to create some kind of top-down variant of it for which every user would need to log in to his Facebook account. My gut feeling says that Zuckerberg aims for the latter by creating what he calls metaverse but is no way near the metaverse using the definitions laid out in this article.

In order to pull off the creation of such a 'narrowed down' version of the metaverse, Facebook would have to enter many other industries. In the Q2 2021 earnings call, Zuckerberg announced that they will start doing exactly this: "major efforts" in the areas of creators, e-commerce, and building the next computing platform. Fellow Seeking Alpha contributor 'Investing for the Future' recently wrote an excellent analysis of Facebook, in which he stated about the entry of Facebook in these additional business areas:

It is difficult to envision an eventual result that falls short of calamity unless the company retracts and amends its strategic goals to be more realistic and achievable. The new diversification appears to be a recipe for disaster - too much all at once.

I agree with this. Though Facebook will be fine in the coming years while they will still be able to create huge cashflows with their current assets, for the longer term, their metaverse ambitions and all that comes with it seem unfocused, with only meager results in the shape of Horizon Workrooms. These plans could lead to negative long-term consequences for the company and its investors.

Thank you for reading! Please let me know in the comment section what you think about the plans of Facebook with regard to the metaverse.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Comments

[terry33]

I can see why Zuckerberg, who closely resembles some kind of cyborg, woul like Horizon Workrooms, which reduces people to cartoon figures.

[Moomoo22u2]

Great news! In the metaverse actual human interaction will be replaced with machine to machine interaction. Humans won’t need to do anything that requires any thought at all. It will be done for you. Awesome!!

[KevjustBrowsing]

The TLDR version of this is "i dont want to use the Metaverse therefore this is a dumb idea"
Dont underestimate the shifting habits of adults. FB used to be a young persons thing and is now for older people. The metaverse will start young and eventually older people will get used to and get hooked. i dont doubt FB ability to create addictive new products..

[The Freak]

@KevjustBrowsing it's not a "dumb idea"... its an idea that has too many potentially perverse outcomes that many who have seen the evolution of Fbook and don't like it want to avoid in their own lives. I think it's brilliant... like Fbook was years ago... but it's also not something I'd like to participate in. good luck trying to maintain control of your life / credit / health information / reputation in the future.

[MillionsDollarMan]

FB is doomed in the privacy lock that people will use.

[kata]

if you don’t like it, don’t use it. that goes for YT and Goog and Twit. don’t give an inch, punch back harder.

[pbirm]

Interesting article!

Although VR/AR is just a part of the metaverse I do think it will be the most important. I think if FB is successful at selling an affordable VR headset that is small, lightweight, 120 degree field-of-view with 4K (real-life) like graphics, etc., look out world it will be a game changer. The technology already exist, its just a matter of miniaturizing it and making it affordable. Until this happens VR will not be successful in the metaverse. I think it's highly likely it will happen, but it may not be in 5 years and it may not be by FB, although they are currently in the lead.

The MATRIX is coming and people will be addicted to it. If you think FB/Instagram addiction is bad now, wait until they build the MATRIX.

[SoCalForever]

Thank you for your very informative, excellent article. I learned so much about the Metaverse.

[Giesbers Investment Strategy]

@SoCalForever Thanks for your comment!

[MillionsDollarMan]

@Giesbers Investment Strategy You're learning what Zuck wants you to learn. Which is brain wash you.

[RB Gambler99]

Excellent analysis....I hate FB anyway so I hope you are right. I would never buy stock in a company thats main source of income is instagram which feeds on the insecurities of pre teenagers.

[The Freak]

@RB Gambler99 I hate fbook also but Instagram isn't their main source of income.

[Giesbers Investment Strategy]

@RB Gambler99 Thanks for your comment. I also do not like most of their applications (except Whatsapp, I use it every day), but in a sound financial analysis your opinion about the company should be irrelevant.

[Scenic Dr]

Mark Zuckerberg...aka Pollyanna. Good luck with that.

[eurdone88]

I can't wait to see how this ruins peoples lives.
Zuckerberg is the least useful billionaire, at least Bezos and Elon make something.
Your data and your time are the products Facebook sells.

[D.Huang]

Have it ever occurred to you that maybe it’s you not getting the idea of metaverse instead of Zack?

[Gary J is Rich on AMZN]

@D.Huang Who is Zack?

[The Freak]

@Gary J is Rich on AMZN the kid means Zuck

[Giesbers Investment Strategy]

@D.Huang I can interpret this as almost a philosophical question, but yes I always try to question my own ideas. I do think Zuckerberg knows a lot about the metaverse (likely much more than I do), but I think he is naive in assuming that Facebook can build it by itself, top-down. Also, with a lot of his ideas, he's quite late to the party.

[Moats and Income]

First, what’s the estimate % of customers that want to detach from reality for hours each day?current FB and Instagram can be used/shared while in reality.

Second, it’s one thing to read a disparaging reply to a FB or Instagram post…it’s another to put on VR glasses and have a mob surround you, yelling at you and doing whatever else negative is allowed in the metaverse game…it will happen…this approach carries an unlimited amount of damaging baggage it’s not worth the effort. Will be much more disturbing to customers than a nasty text-based message..

Mark Z needs to extend Oculus where it can win more…better games and live sporting events…figure out a way to place customers virtually into a live stadium (or concert) and they’ll pay a premium..

[Investing For The Future]

@jmerlo Those are some really good points I personally had not considered... yes, the potential for abuse of the technology in a virtual reality environment is immense. Personally, I do not trust Facebook at its current capabilities to be able to effectively moderate such events. Perhaps management will improve and then people will have more confidence in the company and its ability to step up to the challenge / opportunity.

[Moats and Income]

@Investing For The Future yes, and if FB tries to tighten the Metaverse behavioral screws too tight, it will be more dull than reality - so there’s really no win..

Alternately, figure out a way to get me to a Premier league match and I’ll pay a kings ransom..:)

[Investing For The Future]

@jmerlo It's certainly a very tricky and complex situation for any new company to navigate. An unknown industry and technological revolution with a huge multitude of risks. Fortunes will be made and lost. The question is by who.

[The Freak]

Good piece, author.
One look at how this could shake out... with a positive spin:

San Junipero https://g.co/kgs/f6C3jM

Aaaand another... with a decidedly different outcome:

15 Million Merits https://g.co/kgs/Q7ZmRH

Several from the Black Mirror series address the idea of metaverse. People under 30 who are likely to literally fall into the next Facebook thing without thinking critically about how they got there should really check theyself before they wreck theyself... and everyone else in the process. The service that Fbook announced halting temporary just today - having to do with "background scoring" - is just too close to 15 Million Merits for me to ever consider opting in. Unfortunately, when Fbook and Suckerberg position it to the enterprise buyer as a productivity tool (I work in banking) what choice will I have?? My disposition re the topic isn't new and isn't at all political. I voted for Biden... and as a 45 year old city-dweller I'm proud to say I've NEVER established a fbook profile as I never felt the medium was genuine or productive for anyone with a life they were engaged in. Small victory lap taken...
Good piece.

[Giesbers Investment Strategy]

@The Freak Thank you for your comment. I love Black Mirror, I watched all the episodes and some of them more than once. I even thought about using some of their episodes as an example instead of the movies (The Entire History of You or Crocodile would also be good ones), but I thought the movies were probably more well known.
You are right that 15 million merits seems in the possible realm of how Facebook would implement a metaverse (of course they would probably have more checks and balances than in the series, but still).

[The Freak]

@Giesbers Investment Strategy thx for the discussion 👍🏼

[exufficio]

VR headsets are nearly where the iPhone was in 2008. Very-impressive, game-changing technology, but people weren't yet sure where it was headed, much less what games it would change. I agree Horizon falls far short of all that a mature metaverse can offer, but the question I have is, "Who else out there is closer?" For anyone curious about the space, I certainly recommend picking up a Quest 2. $300 is peanuts to pay for real-world (I recognize the irony of the phrasing), hands-on investment research. It's actually pretty fun, to boot.

[Giesbers Investment Strategy]

@exufficio A couple of years ago I used an Oculus Rift at a previous job where we would use this technology to create trial versions of haptic simulations (for a simulator), and it is quite cool! You are probably right that Facebook likely is ahead of its game concerning VR, but VR only is not going to be the metaverse.

[exufficio]

@Giesbers Investment Strategy I'm interested to see the extent to which 'the oculus store' yields margins for being the largest marketplace for VR apps, whether they be VR-only/games (which I agree is but a limited subset of the MV) or branching out into AR apps to interface with the IoT, for example. Currently, the pass-thru video is too low quality for sustained use, but that is only a matter of tech&time.

[tlapp]

Why would anyone want be in a metaverse where some arrogant pricks get to filter what you see, read or say.

[coroscant72]

@tlapp - This is why it's not going to work for FB. A decentralized version where all people of all beliefs are welcome without being discriminated against will have a significant competitive advantage. FB is also WAAY behind the power curve of what is being created elsewhere. The metaverse is being created in the crypto ecosystem. Things like Decentraland already have live concerts and live art shows that you can attend, have casinos that you can gamble at, and our building out more and more experiences to attract users.

Decentraland is just one of many metaverse ecosystems that is being built in the crypto ecosystem. There are several others.

While i find my oculus fun to use on occasions, it is just the beginning of the technology. Also, everything that is fun to do on it is not built by FB. Unless FB plans to be the AAPL of AR/VR headsets, I don't know what it is doing in the space, and agree with the author on his assessment.

[Giesbers Investment Strategy]

@tlapp Well, there are still people on Facebook or Instagram..

[Doc 224899]

I don't want the ideology thugs at Facebook cancelling the true history of everything, just to validate a temporary anomaly in academic narratives that has been imposed upon us by a small minority of individuals with severe personality disorders.

[The Freak]

@Doc 224899 great comment 💥

[kevinconnolly]

@Doc 224899 Senior ------WELL SAID--------BUT sadly this is not temporary-------the "Cultural Marxists" have breached the gates and there is NO turning back. Just sit back and enjoy the ride over the next 15 years because there will be a reckoning for sure!!

[coroscant72]

@kevinconnolly - I have more faith in humanity than you do apparently. The more the Woke Marxists open their mouths and say what they actually believe the more every day folks, who aren't paying attention, will have to realize who these people are and what they actually believe.

They will be studied and regarded by future generations similar to others, such as the Klan, who also advocated for treating people differently based on the color of their skin or sexual orientation. Their children will be even more embarrassed as there will be detailed records, and the internet will have records of what all of these people said and did. Last names will be changed to escape the shame.

[SeeAroundTheCorner]

If are looking for reasons to sow doubt - just fixate on a metaverse with a lousy user experience with the examples you posted.

FB has 10,000 very smart people working on their metaverse.

The reason I believe FB could be successful is
(1) They can start small and quickly get massive feedback to improve the product. Think about where FB was 15 years ago and how much FB has improved because of user feedback.
(2) FB has massive financial resources which will enable them to power through many failures and wrong turns.

With Mark at the helm, they stand a good chance of being able to pull it off - but it's not guaranteed, and it could go wrong for them.

[Jumento]

@SeeAroundTheCorner actually there is only one team working on it, the marketing one.

[Doc 224899]

@SeeAroundTheCorner

They only listen to a small minority of the feedback they get, and cancel the rest.

They discourage most of the mature, conservative feedback they might get from those with impressive academic and professional achievements.

For me (3 degrees from an Ivy League University), my attitude has become "Why bother?"

[Barry Whittle]

@Doc 224899 are your degrees in accounting?

[Investing For The Future]

@Giesbers Investment Strategy Thank you for the call-out and for your excellent article! Very well researched, eloquently written, and presented in a way that does not bash FB yet nonetheless alerts investors to the need to be watchful of the CEO's vision and FB's diversification efforts into the Metaverse.

I honestly don't understand FB's marketing strategy for investors... a lot of it appears to be focused on generating as much hype as possible about the company's future products, before they are even fully developed, released or tested.

I rolled my eyes when I read FB's Q2 2021 FY Earnings transcript because so much that FB announced is already standard business practice for many leading SaaS firms. E-commerce? Creator economy? The next computing platform?

How is any of this new? Innovation and product feature improvements to FB's existing social networks / platforms, sure, but what is the probability of outright success against many other incumbent S&P 500 leaders in these areas?

How many would choose Facebook over Adobe as a creator? Or even Apple / Google?

How many would choose Facebook over Amazon, Google, Alibaba, Target, Walmart, Adobe, Shopify, and countless other e-commerce companies?

How many would choose Facebook over Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Snowflake, Palantir, or other computing platforms / digital lakehouses?

[Daniel San]

@Investing For The Future all I'm gonna say is, QVC reloaded combined with a creator economy and Facebook is the curator using its network and user data to not only advertise the product but sell it directly to you. Making its share of the profit even bigger. The video is streaming and with one click you bought it directly out of the video. Beating Amazon's one click.

[Investing For The Future]

@Daniel San Hey! Thank you for your comment and for engaging with helpful / relevant commentary. It is much appreciated.

While I can see some people purchasing products this way, I think most prefer to still use a website / not time sensitive platform for purchasing decisions?

What you propose would seem to require a user to make a split second decision to purchase a product while the video is streaming, correct? Or otherwise pause the video to go research the product more?

Most people usually research a product or groups of products before making a purchasing decision, at least based on my observations.

[Gary J is Rich on AMZN]

@Daniel San

Except Amazon already has this.

[Investing For The Future]

Best comment ever:

"Well, Mark, I hate to pop your bubble, but this already happened. In 2020. And with tools other than Horizon Workrooms. The application seems to answer a customer need that is already being met by video conference calls, just not in VR yet."

[Edison Ford]

@Investing For The Future anything that involves wearing a cumbersome headset will be a niche product, until they can figure out a jack direct into the optic nerve (Musk?)

[Investing For The Future]

@Edison Ford In the future it is augmented reality, not virtual reality, that will most likely win out. Sleek augmented reality glasses with the following use cases (once refined to the point of mass production):

1. Ability to use "eye tracking" to allow the user to surf the web, pick options, "click" buttons, etc. Certainly people won't especially want to use a paired product of glasses and "wrist watch" unless absolutely necessary. Internet connectivity is a must, obviously.

2. Real-time useful advertisement / selection options. For example, if you're driving into a new town and you're hungry / want hotels, reliable options should be suggested "on demand" or gently pushed. Any advertisements will need to be very, very carefully curated and not overly pushy or overwhelming.

3. Ability to call / video chat if possible, which will be difficult to implement, but not impossible. Calling at a minimum will be an option. Texting might becoming more difficult, so use cases / alternatives will need to be thought off. Probably voice-commanded speech recognition to dictate messages.

4. Computing / analytic features that allow the glasses the perform at least basic computing functions and run sophisticated enough algorithms to accommodate all the various applications / features / use cases we have with smartphones or even some tablet computers.

5. Navigation features would be very helpful, in any situation. This alone would be immense (hard and annoying to use a phone to navigate while on foot or bicycle, glasses would solve this challenge).

6. Digital security and privacy will be paramount. Eye recognition / retina software would need to be installed to preclude others from using or hacking your device (unless you "open" it and let them test / use it). Any online / internet activity would need to be anonymized if possible and secure, inclusive of any digital transactions, of course.

7. Sunglass / tinting features would be lovely. For example, in the dark, if the glasses can make it easier to see - big feature! If it's sunny, if the glasses can adjust to the optimal frequency / wavelength of light to make it comfortable for the user - another amazing feature!

8. Foldable design if possible - e.g. to prevent unnecessary damage - the glasses must not be so fragile as to easily break considering the likely user cost and must be able to be folded or tucked away easily and safely to carry in one's pocket, perhaps.

9. The battery must be small enough not to weigh down the entire set and should be rechargeable, preferably magnetically / wirelessly.

10. Must function despite extreme temperatures, which will be very, very tricky.

[The Freak]

@Edison Ford I hate to be a broken record here buuut...

The Entire History of You https://g.co/kgs/VxAbYD

If you haven't seen this,it's some of the best TV produced in 20 years.

[Gary J is Rich on AMZN]

Besides in person there is my version of the metaverse - telephone, messaging and conferencing. All are real time and all I need and want when not in person.