Spend time with your loved ones virtually

The metaverse is an umbrella term to describe a macro trend that many people believe is unfolding—the evolution of games into a new form of "internet." Rather than connectivity being portrayed through apps, websites, etc, as it is today, it will primarily exist as an interconnected 3D virtual world that can be infinitely built upon (note: "virtual world" does not necessarily mean virtual reality; the latter merely being one of many ways to access the metaverse).  

When this happens and the protocols for a metaverse are created, it will be powerful enough to challenge the internet, and what we today know as Big Tech. And it will again disrupt the order of the market, knocking some of the biggest tech companies off of their perch.  

This is not considered a fantasy, either. Many consider it inevitable. Think about education as a use case for why this could be so powerful. Today, kids learning remotely navigate a series of apps, websites, zoom rooms, google docs, etc. Frankly, it's a terrible user experience and it is devastating children. But imagine instead a virtual world where kids inhabit a virtual avatar and walk to their school, enter their classroom, sit at their desk and see their teacher "in person"? Then for a field trip they could hop through a portal, or ride in a ship, to visit a virtual Louvre museum. Afterwards, perhaps they could walk the streets of a virtual Paris and practice their French with real people (or “players”).  

This is the kind of experience the metaverse promises. It's a much more human way of interacting with technology, since the metaverse uses familiar human references like space, time, and identity in a way that is much more proximate to our own reality.  

We already see signs that games are taking their first baby steps in this direction (think Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, etc). And major companies like Facebook, Amazon, Epic Games and Microsoft are racing to get there first.