At the Future of Media conference in London earlier this month, Ed Greig, Chief Disruptor, Deloitte Digital, argued that it won’t just be young people who take to the metaverse, but older generations too. He drew a comparison to the rise of social media which initially was predominantly used by younger generations but now has been adopted widely by everyone.
Greig believes that, like social media, the metaverse addresses a fundamental human need: user-generated content with social aspects. He thinks the form in which people engage with it may differ across age groups (younger generations may gravitate towards certain social media apps for example, while older generations prefer alternative apps) but it will still become part of people’s lives regardless of age. He also said that the intuitiveness of navigation within the metaverse when using VR headsets makes it likely that older people will spend time in the environment.
Greig encouraged brands to explore questions they wish they had investigated at the advent of Web 2.0. He also urged brands to begin testing and learning in the metaverse space, warning that brands that are not adaptable enough to create content in the metaverse will struggle as it becomes more widely used. According to Greig, brands should not think of the metaverse as a specific solution but more of a test as to how their organisation can react to new channels.
He said: “You’re not trying to figure out the perfect answer to the metaverse now because there will be a different answer in two weeks’ time, two months’ time and definitely in a year’s time. It’s about honing your organisation so that it has that ability to experiment, test and learn at the pace of change that we’re currently seeing in this space.”
When asked whether the inconvenience of wearing VR headsets would pose any issue to the popularisation of the metaverse, Greig responded that – similar to the Internet – the metaverse will be a destination which is multi-platform, allowing people to access it from whichever device they wish. In the case of the Internet, your choice of device differs depending on whether you are “walking down the street or having a more solid browsing session at home. How you consume content will depend on where you are.” He also noted that there are already glasses delivering augmented reality experiences, and that the technology for VR glasses is developing rapidly.
