Facebook will evolve into a brand-new world, the so-called metaverse, a virtual environment where people can work, play, shop, or otherwise experience the digital world without leaving their homes.

Zuckerberg’s metaverse is, as he puts it, an “embodied internet”, where instead of just viewing content, you are in it. The metaverse would offer a sense of presence and contact with other people, as if you were in other places, having different experiences. You could dance, exercise, study or work and really feel like you’re not alone. Facebook CEO explains that the metaverse would spill over from the virtual world into augmented reality, computers, mobile devices, and gaming consoles.

Zuckerberg’s vision is that all of these devices combine into a persistent, synchronous environment where people can be together because he believes that a sense of physical proximity is essential to the experience and that the success of the metaverse will depend on it.

“In the future, you’ll be able to sit as a hologram on my couch, or I’ll be able to sit as a hologram on your couch, and it’ll actually feel like we’re in the same place, even if we’re in different states or hundreds of miles apart. So I think that that is really powerful,” Zuckerberg said.

Should he realize this vision, he will create a hybrid between today’s social networks and an environment where users can be present, explaining that will not necessarily be a 3D-only experience but also 2D. Zuckerberg says this is something he is currently thinking a lot about and that his company is working hard on this transition. Zuckerberg is convinced that the metaverse is the successor to the mobile internet, i.e. the next evolutionary step in the development of social media and mobile technology. Does this announcement sound appealing or intimidating?