By: Cristina Martínez
M.B.A, M.S, BCBA, LBA
Just a few months ago, the world was shocked by one of the most exciting news stories in recent years. Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the virtual reality firm Oculus, announced that his holding company has been renamed Meta and seeks to change the way we interact using these applications. The promise is a positive change in the way we interact with reality and ensures that, in the near future, we will have a better life thanks to the internet and the Metaverse. What is this about?
The term “Metaverse” refers to an alternate reality where users, through fictitious characters called "avatars," interact and perform multiple activities as they would in reality.
To better understand this project, which seems to be taken out of a science fiction story, we must imagine a "virtual environment" in which we can enter and interact, instead of simply looking at a screen. Basically, through your avatar, you will be able to work, meet with friends, play basketball, shop, go to a concert, or visit any city without leaving your room and experience it as if you were really there.
However, not everything is light in this futuristic technological project. There are many dark sides and risks that worry the scientific community. The reality is undeniable; along with the wonders and advantages of virtual hyperconnectivity, the Metaverse could present a serious danger to the human essence if we do not know how to control it.
Special attention should be paid to the consequences that in the short or long term could affect psychological development and therefore human behavior. One of the greatest risks in this regard lies in the possible deterioration of social relationships. While you will have the ability to connect with people in any corner of the planet, there are experts who warn of a diminution and alteration in social interactions as we conceive them today.
Thus, it is evident that many behavioral disorders and other psychic alterations will be a worrying focus from the irresponsible and uncontrolled use of this technology. Could the Metaverse be especially risky for people with ASD? Although it is still too early to speculate on a project under development, everything points to this being the case.
Giving greater value to digital interaction and diminishing face-to-face communication limits the development of social skills and favors dependence, insecurity, fears, isolation, and lack of empathy that can reach pathological levels. As parents, we must be aware of these risks and prevent them by teaching responsible and intelligent use of technology.
The problem is not virtual social relationships; in fact, it is true that hyperconnectivity makes our lives easier.
The problem lies in the increasing substitution of contact and social ties in our environment with digital interactions that can never replace our family, friends, or colleagues.
In recent years, much has been said (and done) about the therapeutic use of new technologies for autism. This makes it clear that, with control and responsibility, there are valuable tools for learning, training, and stimulation of skills.
It will take between 10 to 15 years to create this virtual space called Metaverse, presumably enough time to prepare ourselves. We should begin to learn to use technology for our benefit and how it can function in our lives - not the other way around.
In 1982, the novelist J. G. Ballard* predicted that reality would no longer be what exists outside, but what is in your head – the same year that Blade Runner** proposed a world crushed by pollution and dominated by evil corporations, even at the cost of enslaved lives. Let us resolve to be smart enough not only to make the former a reality, but also to avoid the latter.
* James Graham Ballard (J. G. Ballard) was an English writer considered the last of the surrealists and a master of literary science fiction.
** Blade Runner is a feature film and first part of the science fiction franchise of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. It depicts a future in which artificial humans called replicants are manufactured and employed in dangerous jobs and as slaves.
