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The Metaverse Is The Future… Is The Future Bright?

As we think about the metaverse and virtual worlds, we might want to think more about who we want to be…

There is nothing new about our pending virtual worlds.
We saw it with Second Life.
We see it with Roblox.
We see it with Minecraft.
If you have Oculus, you are already seeing it.
We’ve seen this movie before.

If nothing changes in our social media behavior, we will fracture our society (even) more.

If that doesn’t scare you, it should.
We will become more insular.
We will become more divided.
We will become more like others who are like us.

We will lose our ability to understand others… and their differing perspectives.

My experiences traveling this past few weeks for business have been eye-opening.
Zoom doesn’t solve for life.
Zoom doesn’t make us see the world (and one another) in a different light.
The information transfer in a business meeting is only a small fraction of what a business meeting should be about.
Being together – in our protein forms – is critical too.

We need to experience others… and other places.

Pico Iyer said it best…
“We don’t travel to move. We travel to be moved.”

On the other hand, the metaverse will…

Build new businesses.
Bring people together in new and interesting ways.
Enable us to be more connected to more diverse voices and people.

Which brings us to the big questions:

Why would the metaverse be any different (or better) than what we’re seeing with social media?
Who will govern the metaverse?
Who will set the rules and (hopefully) make this a better digital experience?
What will we do to make sure of this (because, if we do not… we have learned nothing)?

There’s much more to it…

This, and other current topics (driven by the questions above) were discussed along with Christopher Barger (Owens Corning), Scott Monty (Scott Monty Strategies) and host Bob Knorpp (always a good human) on the very excellent BeanCast Podcast (which I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on in the past). I don’t know what it is about BeanCast, Bob Knorpp and these other panelists, but there is always “something in the water” when we record these conversations that brings out a lot of stimulating ideas and insights (and some friendly disagreements too!).

Are you ready for this deep dive into the world of media and marketing? Here is: BeanCast #655 – Sound Effects Gone Wild.

For about an hour, we discussed and debated the following topics:

Take a listen and jump into the fray…

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1166608744

Mitch Joel · The BeanCast Podcast – Sound Effects Gone Wild – Episode #655

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends).

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.