The Media and Me by Ben Boyington

Author:Ben Boyington [Ben Boyington, Allison T. Butler, Nolan Higdon, Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: progressive politics; social justice; misinformation; cultural studies; media studies; media literacy; Fake news; digital citizenship; project censored; social media; internet; computers; sociology; social science; young adult nonfiction; young adult; psychology; family; culture; books for 12 year old girls; 4th grade books; books for 11 year old girls; nonfiction books for ages 9 12; non fiction books for kids age 9 12; books for 11 year old boys; books for 12 year old boys; books for 13 year old boys; 5th grade books
ISBN: 9781644211953
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2022-09-23T18:00:00+00:00

Looking to the Future of “Metaverse Literacy”

Let’s take a look into the future of one rapidly expanding social technology, the Metaverse, a term coined by the speculative fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. The way most of us engage online throughwebsites and cellphones can be considered a two-dimensional or 2D experience. The Metaverse uses augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) to create an immersive 3D experience. The online game Second Life pioneered some of these virtual social technologies. Today, well-known Metaverse projects include Decentraland, Fortnite, Meta (formerly Facebook), Minecraft, and Roblox, to name just a few. All are owned by Big Tech companies, except Decentraland, which is managed by a nonprofit foundation.87 The diminishing distinction between online and offline experiences provides a rich opportunity to develop what we could call “Metaverse literacy” awareness.

As introduced in chapter 1, Stuart Hall’s encoding-decoding model can be applied to any medium, including the Metaverse. The Metaverse is a growing global digital medium with the potential to perpetuate hegemonic social issues currently plaguing the internet, such as cyberbullying, racism, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, internet addiction, and constant surveillance. As new digital societies emerge, the relationship between government and digital citizens will require radical rethinking. This growing global digital medium may force us to rethink concepts such as the role of identity, laws and governance, ownership of digital property, cybersecurity, and perceptions of space and time.

The latest wave of new technologies is accelerating our transition into a fully immersive Metaverse. We are witnessing these transitions as many important facets of life have “gone digital” and more will do so in the future. For some of us, our identity is already tied to the digital footprint we leave behind. “If you didn’t post it, it didn’t happen.” Some of us would not dare post a selfie or video without a filter. Some may consider online followers we’ve never met friends. Now, when young people are told to go play, many will grab a controller or another device before grabbing a ball. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us to abandon our office and school to work remotely on our computers or tablets. These are shifts toward the fully immersive Metaverse, where more time is spent connected to and engaging with a device or the internet than is spent connecting to people and experiences in physical reality. As proponents of the Metaverse see it, full immersion will engage all five of our senses, giving participants the perception of real-life experience. It is essential we hold on to the concepts of critical media literacy as we explore the new digital world to come.

Adapting Hall’s theory, the Metaverse will be embedded with messages as part of its production. Reina Robinson, the managing director of Center for Urban Excellence (and one of this book’s authors), suggests we begin to forecast and define necessary Metaverse literacy skills that should be practiced as we continue our transition into these rapidly advancing technologies. Companies

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