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Facebook has been fraught with controversy over the last three years, so it’s no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg has wanted to distance himself and the company from these hot topics and rebrand the business altogether.
As a result, he is now the head of Meta, which is responsible for creating some of the Metaverse. You have probably seen news articles circulating about the Metaverse, and what people are predicting it to be like.
However, what’s known about the Metaverse when it comes to mental health is very little, and there are some serious causes for concern.
How Could the Metaverse Impact Mental Health?
According to Metaverse statistics, as well as where a lot of experts see the Metaverse headed in the future, it is predicted that it will exacerbate mental health issues by keeping people plugged in and online.
At the end of the day, Zuckerberg isn’t about keeping people safe online; he is about money. We’ve already seen this through the way that he has handled Facebook controversies, including a complete lack of regulation around younger users.
It’s clear that he already has an immense amount of control over users’ data, and there is nothing to suggest that the Metaverse isn’t going to capitalize on this.
User safety and well-being isn’t a high priority when it comes to the Metaverse’s agenda.
Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who released Facebook files last year, explained that the company’s internal research found that Instagram was detrimental to the safety and well-being of teenage girls. What was particularly worrying about this is that when Facebook discovered this, they kept it secret.
What’s not secret is the fact that social media has a detrimental impact on young people’s well-being in general. 85% of Generation Z that were surveyed in 2021 said that their self-esteem had been affected by social media.
Err on the Side of Caution
With so much unknown about the future of Metaverse, we definitely believe that we need to err on the side of caution. This is because we are only just starting to scratch the surface as far as investigating how social media has impacted our mental health both individually, and as a society.
Technology companies need to spend a lot more time researching this aspect of social media, and how Metaverse could end up proving harmful to young people’s well-being. It is really important that they take these proactive steps now, so that they are able to do something before it is too late.
It would be naive to think that the Metaverse doesn’t have a dark side, and we believe that this is going to come out and become more evident as time goes on.
Right now, the best thing that you can do as far as your mental health goes when it comes to projects like the Metaverse is to approach with caution and live a balanced life in regards to social media in general.
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