4 Meta…Okay?

So, today someone drove past me and they had the licence plate “4 META”.

Now, I can’t be certain that they meant they are totally committed to the world of Meta, but, it kind of seemed like that’s what they were saying.

I don’t have a Facebook account any more and I went on a WhatsApp Fast for about a year. I didn’t miss either, but WhatsApp is used by a lot of people for business, so I am back on there.

That’s by-the-by. I find it interesting, and I know I am a bit late on this, but I find it interesting the hype around having an avatar or having online interactions as your avatar. It’s really not that new.

Second Life has been around for almost two decades. There are even stories of people getting married in real life after having three-year romances in Second Life.
Not to mention the gaming community, which is now almost 3.1 billion people strong. Gamers have been playing digital cosplay since before it was even vaguely cool.

We as humans love creating characterisations of ourselves or experiencing alternate selves that we possibly think are more exciting or interesting, or that we cannot experience in the real world because of career choices and because, well, unless you actually are in the service, you probably won’t get the opportunity to fire a .50 Calibre rifle anytime soon.

I think the platform on which you are choosing to experience these alternate selves is irrelevant. As long as you are getting what you need out of it.

Do I want Meta to dominate the world of avatars? No, definitely not, I enjoy gaming too much.

I am interested, however, to see if Meta can bring about the same kind of niched, cool and interesting tribes as have been formed in Second Life over the years.
Second Life has also been a really interesting environment for the delivery of online learning and cross border interaction, a bit like the awesome Uncensored Library of Minecraft.

So, am I 4 Meta? Well, that still remains to be seen. But I’ll definitely be exploring some meta environments on the PlayStation this weekend.