Potential Risks and Disadvantages of Metaverse

The concept of metaverse, which has recently started to be included in our lives, excites many people in terms of the innovations and possibilities it will provide. The digital solutions it will produce for many applications, besides being a very important advantage for the companies developing the applications, also offer us many other advantages. The metaverse, which is said to further increase the power of Blockchain, is thought to provide more opportunities for Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. It can also facilitate the development and deployment of NFTs as distributed or decentralized databases used to store transaction records. Apart from blockchain, It would be the right approach for developing this virtual universe to talk about many advantages such as the fact that the metaverse world provides a more innovative and effective communication environment for education and business life, social events, opportunities to travel in the virtual world, marketing resources for companies. However, many disadvantages of such advantages should not be ignored. It is an undeniable fact that behind the many opportunities that Metaverse provides and will provide, some risks can have serious consequences.

First of all, there are some advanced technological products required by the metaverse. The need for hardware devices such as VR headsets and Haptic gloves may signal that not everyone can experience the Metaverse equally. Because many people are not in a position to reach such hardware requirements, likely, they will not be able to reach all people due to the dependence of many opportunities that metaverse will provide on such requirements. Apart from the hardware requirements, fast internet connection is among the indispensable requirements for the metaverse. However, many people in our world do not have the necessary internet infrastructure to have fast internet. This means that many people who will enter the metaverse and do not have sufficient internet infrastructure will experience connection problems such as delays and internet interruptions which may cause an interrupted metaverse environment.

Apart from the requirements mentioned above, there is a possibility that the metaverse may experience many problems in terms of privacy and security. For many people, it is a very just and natural requirement to surf safely in the digital environment and to keep the sensitive information they share securely. However, the possibilities that the metaverse will offer make it difficult for people to travel safely in the metaverse environment and keep their important information confidentially. Therefore, it is thought that when the metaverse enters human life more, the possibility of many security problems may arise, such as malicious hackers being able to somehow capture the sensitive information of people travelling in the metaverse.

In addition to such risks, it is also assumed that the metaverse may cause many changes in our social life. Addiction to the virtual world can lead people to withdraw from real-world events and responsibilities. With the formation of this addiction, it should not be difficult to think that our children will grow up with this addiction in the future. According to the study conducted by HTC with a Chinese university on VR addiction, it has been revealed that the tendency to addiction to VR-based games is 44% higher than computer-based games. In addition, the potential of the metaverse to affect the people about perceiving their real relationships and interactions with each other can be shown among the disadvantages that it can bring to us in a social sense.

To conclude, every advantage has some disadvantages. Metaverse is on its way to becoming a virtual world that will develop as a concept within this rule. It is up to both the developers of this virtual platform and us to minimize the disadvantages it will bring. If the necessary effort can be made with both sides and these risks can be minimized, then the metaverse can become  completely a virtual universe that will make our lives easier and offer new possibilities for us.