Navigating New Realities: Experiences of Early Adopters in the Metaverse
Finn Massari, Jean-Paul Van Belle, Marita Turpin · 2024
This research investigates the social challenges currently plaguing virtual environments because of the affordance of virtual reality technology and the design of the Metaverse interface. A qualitative, inductive approach has been employed in this research, allowing the research to leverage the benefits of themes to document social challenges as narrated by early adopters. Semi-structured research interviews have been conducted in both Rec Room and VRChat, and data analysis has been performed using NVivo software. The findings of this study suggest that harassment and discrimination are the most prevalent social challenges experienced in the metaverse, with less substantial themes for cyber-discomfort, virtual crime, and privacy concerns. The findings additionally suggest that the impact of social adversity is increased in virtual settings in comparison with traditional online spaces. In addition to this, suggestions towards the mitigation of social adversity in the metaverse included improved proximity controls and management, and increased education and awareness. In addition to these findings, the research additionally provides suggestions for early adopters of the metaverse, academia researching metaverse-related phenomena, and developers in the metaverse domain.