Posted on 26th October 2023
Forget the metaverse, you are already living in the meshyverse
This metaverse Zucks
Mark Zuckerberg so wants people to believe he is creating a new world that he placed a huge bet on it by renaming one of the largest companies in the world to prove it. The metaverse was a go hard or go home push for the company to develop and foster an immersive virtual environment. Meta don't just want your eyes on a website to help them sell ads, they want all your senses and your mind to be entirely consumed by this new world. And though the stinted launch presentation didn't exactly demonstrate it, they think you can have fun in this world too.
It's easy to lambaste something that hasn't become an instant success, so I won't. We all know this hasn't garnered much traction. But that doesn't mean that it has no potential or doesn't reflect the evolution of online interaction.
For at least a decade the majority of the world's connected population has enjoyed participation in some form of social network. We tend to think of this as people being users of specific products: Meta (née Facebook), X (née Twitter), Instagram etc. It's easy to believe people operate in specific segments or slices of these forms of social media, largely only interacting with those that are also in their 'echo chambers'. But these networks form a structure of huge public and private channels connecting people and groups together in unfathomable combinatorial complexity. In short they create a web of connectivity. In some ways we are back where we started: a world wide web. In many ways we are not. The difference is openness has given way to boundaries, control and curation.
Choice is key to the web
What does all this have to do with the 'metaverse'? I don't believe we are even close to accepting and residing in a single virtual world. It's never how the web has worked, back when it was just the web, or even now in the age of social media. The one huge benefit of being online is the broad choice it offers over other forms of media and social interaction.
Not many of us go to the same location all the time to interact in person. Even those that listen to someone give a sermon or watch the same sports team every week probably also go somewhere else to sup a beverage of their choice afterwards and discuss things with a select group of people rather than their whole 'tribe'. They certainly wouldn't agree with their whole church or football club listening in on all their interactions the rest of the time.
My point is online as well as 'in real life' we have our own networks of people we hang out with. In fact online you have a lot more choice of who you hang out with and where at your fingertips. These networks are complex and we enjoy having a lot of choice in how we interact. So that may mean the concept of an online universe (essentially what I take the metaverse to mean in Meta's definition) is flawed. But it doesn't mean online 'worlds' don't exist. They definitely do exist and I would argue there are many, almost infinite online worlds: multiverses if you will.
I think we can take examples of emerging 'decentralised' or federated social networks, such as Mastodon, as evidence that the breadth of choices you have about your network or tribe matters.
The spaces in between
But I also think there's something more going on. Thinking about how things 'go viral' there is a combination of factors, but crucially very often things that go viral have an online and offline component to their success. (Esteves, 2018)
This suggests there are networks and spaces between them that exist which bridge gaps such as the void between the online and offline worlds. Essentially there are 'meshes' which connect like minded people with potentially huge numbers of other like minded people in ways we can't easily comprehend, but we know are powerful enough to rapidly disseminate information. Thoughts and ideas, as well as facts and data can be shared and potentially be accepted as universal truths in the blink of an eye.
People will not only talk about this information online but also in person amongst their mesh of contacts without needing to explain or describe it as if it had always been common knowledge. Memes, in the broadest sense of the word, thrive in these these meshes (Esteves, 2018). And each mesh represents subsets of a global society existing and interacting both online and offline simultaneously.
If you've ever decided to stop using a particular social network you may recognise a feeling of being 'out of touch' with specific cultural references. You exercised your power to modify your mesh and in turn changed the mesh others experience in a small but nevertheless important way too.
A messy meshyverse diagram. Sort of demonstrating the open space or synapse between offline and online, as well as hinting at other possible areas that could be bridged and form part of 'the mesh'
Why 'meshes' and so what?
Why do I think mesh is a good term for this? Well we all get the concept of a web or network. But the things those terms doesn't seem to be inclusive of, and that the meaning of mesh tends to encompass, are the open gaps (synapses if you like) within the web that information can also cross between.
I think many of those looking for power and influence already realise the value of these multiple, perhaps infinite, social meshes that exist today. The metaverse may be just arriving, but the multi-mesh, or meshyverse if you will, is already here. Some companies and organisations are already working on exploiting it.
Going back to Meta, does that mean their attempt at creating the metaverse will crash and burn? I'm not so sure. Zuckerberg was clever enough to see something is about to evolve with our online world, he just didn't bet on quite the right thing. But don't be surprised if the they pivot their efforts to try and take control of the narrative and our online worlds in some other subtly different way. The stakes couldn't be higher for the commercial winners and losers of this shift so they will fight tooth and nail for it.
For now individuals hold the power in their hands to change their whole world, online and offline, to some extent. I think we should embrace and exercise this power as much as possible in the coming years. By experimenting with and mastering social meshes we could beat our commercial social media overlords like Zuckerberg and Musk to finding out how to control our social lives and in turn how to find a better way to live.
References:
(just one but it is a fascinating piece of research)
Esteves, V.E.D. (2018). ‘Mah LOLthesis let me show u it’ : the (re)making and circulation of participatory culture : memes, creativity and networks. [online] ethos.bl.uk. Available at: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.793392