The Argument for Living in 3D

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What’s the biggest difference between the internet of now and the metaverse of tomorrow? It’s the feeling of actually being together apparently.

Physical presence — just like IRL, say bloggers for Stageverse, which surprise, surprise, is a start-up social space in the metaverse.

They set out their argument for the benefits of a next-gen internet experience by complaining that the one we’ve had for the last few decades has been devoid of true social context.

“High-bandwidth communication; not only verbal — but visual, physical, emotional communication,” is missing, they say.

In a world of 2D screen experiences we lead largely detached existences, they continue. “We don’t connect directly with one another, as we do IRL, rather our interactions primarily take place impersonally and asynchronously, like a distant game of social tag.”

In essence, we’re missing everything that allows us to form and foster deep, meaningful connections; “all this has been lost as our social lives have moved increasingly online.”

So, if the first age of social products was about breadth of social connection (wiring up the world into dense networks of friends and followers; broadcasting content into the faceless ether); the next age of social products, will be about depth of connection.

As they put it; “Meaningful conversation, interaction, and participation in shared social experiences; truly ‘multiplayer.’ Live experience, together.”

This is all back to Stageverse (in public beta) — the metaverse Stageverse’s bloggers argue, will deliver IRL experiences rather than the social vacuum of the web today.

What’s wrong with actually meeting in person? Or In Real Life, if you must call it that. How about normal physical interaction? Outside of a pandemic when travel was so unnaturally restricted surely that is by far preferable to meeting someone in what will only be a simulacra of an actual interpersonal interaction.

Stageverse further argues that since life is three dimensional then our digital experiences should be 3D, too. This is much the same argument as attended the revival of stereoscopic 3D filmmaking around 2010, and it didn’t wash then because the technology (capture or display) was good enough to replicate anything like the real thing in seamless comfort.

Interacting in a 3D and interconnected metaverse might be a step up from our current 2D and fragmented online social existence but it’s no substitute for the real, real thing.