Twitter Metaverse Study

This work responds to the ongoing race by technology companies to create the metaverse – the virtual reality vision of the next iteration of the Internet as described in sci-fiction writing. These fictions were often dystopian and the metaverse could reproduce and even worsen real world problems.

We are concerned about social media inside the metaverse for its ability to cause both harm to individuals and even damage democracy. To explore these concerns, we are conducting a study with 14 plus participants inside a controlled VR environment where they will interact with real content from the twitter-sphere. We will use our upcoming findings to highlight areas of concern and find opportunities for design around the social of social media inside the metaverse.

Partners: Patrick Dickinson at Lincoln University

People: Gavin Wood