The metaverse might have seemed like a dystopian type of idea that most people would not have wanted to take part in, but with Facebook’s recent name change to Meta it seems more or less inevitable that the metaverse will eventually become an intrinsic part of our lives. While Meta has often referred to the fact that it will take quite a long while before the metaverse turns into what people are expecting it to be, many consumers have already formed some pretty strong opinions on the subject.
In order to obtain a better understanding of what people’s opinions surrounding the metaverse actually are, NordVPN has conducted a survey of around 1,000 people. It turns out that around 87% of people feel that the metaverse is going to seriously compromise their privacy, but at the same time 74% of respondents said that they would be willing to at the very least consider using the metaverse once it becomes readily available to them so chances are that people will not care about privacy all that much by the time it is released.
Another thing to note about the results of this survey is that over half of Americans, or 55% to be exact, don’t even know what the metaverse actually is in the first place. Only about 14% have enough knowledge about it to be able to explain to someone else what the metaverse entails, so there is a clear lack of awareness among consumers regarding this piece of tech.
The concerns that people have tend to vary. 50% said that impersonating someone would become far too easy on social media, 47% worry that they will no longer have legal protection for their identities, 45% fear the increased data mining would compromise their security, 43% feel like not knowing who the other person actually is might make them feel unsecure, and 41% fear that they wouldn’t be able to maintain anonymity in the metaverse.
Two thirds of respondents also feel that the metaverse could potentially replace social media entirely in the future. 24% believe that social media can be completely replaced by the metaverse, while 42% believe that it can at least partially replace social media on that front
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In order to obtain a better understanding of what people’s opinions surrounding the metaverse actually are, NordVPN has conducted a survey of around 1,000 people. It turns out that around 87% of people feel that the metaverse is going to seriously compromise their privacy, but at the same time 74% of respondents said that they would be willing to at the very least consider using the metaverse once it becomes readily available to them so chances are that people will not care about privacy all that much by the time it is released.
Another thing to note about the results of this survey is that over half of Americans, or 55% to be exact, don’t even know what the metaverse actually is in the first place. Only about 14% have enough knowledge about it to be able to explain to someone else what the metaverse entails, so there is a clear lack of awareness among consumers regarding this piece of tech.
The concerns that people have tend to vary. 50% said that impersonating someone would become far too easy on social media, 47% worry that they will no longer have legal protection for their identities, 45% fear the increased data mining would compromise their security, 43% feel like not knowing who the other person actually is might make them feel unsecure, and 41% fear that they wouldn’t be able to maintain anonymity in the metaverse.
Two thirds of respondents also feel that the metaverse could potentially replace social media entirely in the future. 24% believe that social media can be completely replaced by the metaverse, while 42% believe that it can at least partially replace social media on that front
Read next: Test confirms adding links to Instagram stories can cause a huge decrease in user engagement and reach