Negative Effects of Metaverse Essay Sample

It’s 34 years in the future and the streets are empty and quiet. Everyone has virtual reality goggles on their head, remotes in their hands, and suits that make them feel like everything is going on in the other world. This new world is created by billionaire tech gurus; this new world is the metaverse. In the year 2056, teens will be immersed and spending most of their time in a virtual reality world called the metaverse; this will damage their mental health and mental development.  

In the future, more teens will have lower self-esteem, social anxiety, and depression because of the metaverse, which will be fully immersive in the year 2056. The metaverse is where people do almost everything “whether [it's] hanging out with your friends or having a business meeting,” (Alvin). All social interactions are going to take place in the metaverse. The metaverse will be “used to hold concerts, festivals, reunions, and conferences”(Snider, Molina). Teens will even be attending school in the metaverse. The metaverse is going to be the new social media, and “research has shown myriad negative effects of social media on the psyches of children and adolescents, from the prevalence of bullying and harassment to self-esteem and body image issues,”(Hudelston). Social media has detrimental effects on the mental health of teens. They believe that their lives should look like the ones of the people they see online. The virtual reality in the metaverse and how immersive it is could take this envy to the next level, causing teens to have even lower self-esteem. Some believe that the metaverse is a good thing and can cause kids to talk to each other more and be more social, but teens aren’t going to have normal social interactions in the metaverse. They are going to be behind a screen and they will have different interactions with their friends in the metaverse compared to the ones they would have in the real world. This will cause teens to be socially awkward and have social anxiety.

The metaverse can cause teens to have problems finding their identity and who they are as a person, “the use of 3D digital avatars in the metaverse carries another problem, too: Being able to modify your likeness to project a version of yourself that differs from real life can be ‘pretty dangerous for adolescents, in particular”(Hudelston). Some may say that avatars will help all kids look how they want and have more confidence. But using the characters can allow kids to project a fake image of themselves, which is unhealthy for adolescents whose minds develop greatly. Having a fake picture of yourself can cause kids to struggle more with their identity. Living in the metaverse can cause adolescents to have trouble differing from the two realities. They could start to believe they are that avatar, that they are in the metaverse, and can pretend to be someone that they are not. Attending school on the metaverse and working in the metaverse can also cause identity issues; teens will be changing themselves so that they are accepted by society. They will think that their body in real life isn't good enough and that you have to change yourself for people to accept you or to be good enough.

Teens will be exposed to a great amount of sexual harassment and inappropriate content in the metaverse. A woman was inside a virtual reality game in the metaverse that is “[rated as] safe for teenagers''(Frenkel, Browning) when another player’s avatar approached hers, “the stranger then simulated groping and ejaculating onto her avatar,”(Frenkel, Browning). She asked the person to stop, but they didn’t care, because it was in the metaverse and there are very few consequences for your actions. Teens being exposed to sexual harassment at a young age can lead them to think that this behavior is okay and normal. Being sexually assaulted in the metaverse is more common because it is so hard to be tracked, so people can act without consequences. Even in the early stages of the metaverse now, “minors [are] regularly exposed to graphic sexual content, racist and violent language, bullying, and other forms of harassment on VRChat’s platform,”(Hudelston). These problems will only increase as the metaverse grows. Having experiences like these in the metaverse can have traumatic effects on teens. Being sexually harassed in the metaverse can feel real and have the same effects that it would in the real world. Some may argue that teens are exposed to sexual harassment in the real world, but not as much as they are in the metaverse, and in the metaverse; most are not punished for their actions. The metaverse exposes teens to more sexual harassment than they would be exposed to in the real world, which has harmful and traumatic effects on adolescents developing minds. 

The metaverse has damaging effects on a teen’s mental health; they have more trouble finding who they are; they have low self-esteem and depression; they also are exposed to a lot of sexual harassment and inappropriate content. The more time teens spend in this fake reality, the more they will be cut off from the world, and the worse their mental health will be. Though virtual reality seems fun, it can cause many problems with mental health and change the world forever and have damaging effects on teens’ mental health.