Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

What Is This Metaverse Mark Zuckerberg Speaks of?

Second Life online marketplace avatars in the metaverse celebrate the site's 11th birthday.
Second Life online marketplace avatars in its ‘walled’ metaverse. HyacintheLuynes

It turns out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg left the planet during an October news cycle that held a spotlight squarely on Facebook. On the Senate floor, whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to the many ways that Facebook has harmed its users as supported by a cache of secret documents. Upon his return to public view, Zuckerberg did nothing to acknowledge those charges, instead releasing a video vision for his company’s future. This projection includes a new name — Meta — and a utopian aspiration to elicit a streaming virtual reality that dodges the reality of a vigorous investigation.

Recommended Videos

“Video has become the main way that we experience content … but this isn’t the end of the line. The next platform in media will be even more immersive. An embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse,” Zuckerberg says in Facebook’s almost 80-minute streaming Connect 2021 vision statement. 

What is this place? Is it as fantastic as Zuckerberg claims? And is it as imminent as the CEO wants people to believe? 

Technologists describe the metaverse as an enduring, shared, 3D virtual environment where people can meet for activities ranging from playing games to conducting business. The metaverse incorporates technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality to create its own world. 

You can catch glimpses of the metaverse today in virtual worlds offered by Roblox, Fortnite, even from Second Life, which began all the way back in 2003. These applications, however, are missing two critical aspects of a ‘real’ metaverse. 

First, though these games, to varying extents, use virtual reality and augmented reality to place users ‘in world,’ Zuckerberg describes the metaverse as “an embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at.”

“The defining quality of the metaverse is presence, which is this feeling that you’re really there with another person or in another place,” Zuckerberg said during a recent conference call with Facebook stock analysts. 

Second, a true metaverse is interconnected, not a collection of “walled gardens” — metaverse-like 3D experiences that users can control, but don’t connect to the broader internet. 

Users will be able to access the metaverse from devices — smartphones, PCs, virtual reality headsets, and augmented-reality smart glasses. Right now, companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, and Unity Software, in addition to Facebook, are among those producing this hardware and applications for a next-generation internet with these capabilities. While these firms are positioning themselves as metaverse leaders, it’s hard to envision these ultra-proprietary technology companies sharing the metaverse. 

Related Guides

On Oct. 25, the social network said investments into its metaverse ambitions, via Facebook Reality Labs, will reduce overall operating profits by about $10 billion in 2021. That’s a big slice of real money to spend on a virtual world and shows the belief Zuck’s got in the efficacy of a digital world. 

“Creation, avatars, and digital objects are going to be central to how we express ourselves, and this is going to lead to entirely new experiences and economic opportunities,” Zuckerberg says in Connect 2021. 

In July, Zuckerberg told The Verge that it could take five years for Facebook to transition from social media to the metaverse. Facebook stock will begin trading as Meta stock under the ticker ‘MVRS’ on Dec. 1. Whether or not this takes the heat off of Facebook in the courtroom is a whole ‘nother question. 

If you’re interested in digging deeper into Zuckerberg’s vision, you can check out the entire video below. 

Read More: The Matrix 4 Trailer Is Here

Matthew Denis
Matt Denis is an on-the-go remote multimedia reporter, exploring arts, culture, and the existential in the Pacific Northwest…
Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan reunite for Sinners — here’s what to expect
Coogler and Michael B. Jordan will reunite for the fifth time
Coogler and Jordan

Ryan Coogler is one of the first names you hear when critics discuss the directors with the brightest futures in the movie industry. Coogler has a keen sense of what makes both an entertaining and thought-provoking story on the big screen. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for his producing efforts on Judas and the Black Messiah, but let's stick with his directorial career only for the sake of this article. His vision always includes Michael B. Jordan as his muse. Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and its sequel are the four films the duo have collaborated on so far, and their fifth film is just around the corner.

Sinners will star Jordan as two identical twins with a checkered past as they travel back to their hometown in search of a better life. The unexpected horrors that await Smoke and Stack when they arrive will test their identities and their abilities to survive. There are not a lot of plot details, but the movie seems to be a perfect mix of horror and thriller elements. It should also critique race relations and make social statements about the current world we're living in if we're to go off of what Coogler's previous movies have focused on. This is everything we know about Sinners so far, from any trailers for the movie to the release date of the film in theaters (it's not far away).
What is the business relationship between Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan?
As mentioned in the intro, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have a type of relationship that has been shared in the past by duos like Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Fruitvale Station was the first time they collaborated. It was Coogler's first time directing a film and one of the first times Jordan was the main star after smaller roles in shows like The Wire. They revived the Rocky franchise with the spinoff film Creed at a time when many people didn't think Jordan would be able to serve as an adequate star for the world's most famous boxing franchise. And then came the movie franchise that changed everything for both Coogler and Jordan: Black Panther. Jordan played the antagonist of the film, while Coogler's vision for Marvel's biggest movie yet helped solidify it as a modern classic. It became the first Marvel film to win an Academy Award.

Read more
What channel is the Super Bowl on?
Wondering how to watch Super Bowl? There are quite a few ways, it turns out
The Super Bowl trophy being held up

It's Super Bowl season, people. The stage is set, with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, February 9, 2025. The world will be watching to see if the Chiefs or the Eagles hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the end of the game (well, some will be more concerned with how many times Travis Kelce superfan Taylor Swift will be shown, but we digress). You may have the big screen and all the requisite Super Bowl appetizers, but what channel is the Super Bowl on?

Although it's the biggest sporting event in America, I know from personal experience how frustrating it can be to try to find the game itself. It changes channels every year, and is likely to be that way forever!

Read more
What is Dexter: Resurrection? What we know about the new spinoff
If you're a Dexter fan, here's what to get excited about
Michael C. Hall in Dexter

Dexter is having quite the revival on Showtime and streaming on Paramount+ as of late. The prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin, debuted in December 2024 to widespread fanfare. Now, Dexter fans can rejoice at even more morbid, murderous adventures with Michael C. Hall in Dexter: Resurrection. The award-nominated TV star will reprise his titular role once again in the fourth confirmed series in the franchise. Hall was a surprise guest at Comic Con 2024, where it was announced that he would be donning Dexter's khakis and flannel yet again all these years later. Hall has appeared in other great stuff outside the Dexter world, such as one of Netflix's Harlan Coben series.

We know Dexter: Resurrection is a sequel series, so it will take place after the events of Dexter and Dexter: New Blood. It's not a reboot or redo of the original show, so everything will fit into Dexter's timeline in a way that allows audiences to see even more of Dexter's life.

Read more