Metaverse: Its Potential Negatives元宇宙的潛在弊端

阿約邁克 曾逸

The Metaverse is a pretty cool tech. But just like every other innovative tech， there are negatives to this.

Addiction

You know how we already complain that humans spend too much time on the internet playing games， watching movies， and even streaming videos？ Well， the idea of Metaverse will amplify that by a whole lot.

Think about it， whod like to quickly leave a space he/she designed that seems perfect. I mean， the person is living his/her dreams， has the perfect body， goes to the best places， and does whatever he/she pleases.

Its very easy to lose touch of reality and began to prefer staying in the virtual world and even prefer it to your personal life.

Inferiority Complex and Depression

We already see how social media pictures make people dislike parts of their body. Over the couple of years， the numbers of plastic surgeries to correct parts of the body has grown among teens globally. But， what happens when you live in a fantasy world where you design the perfect body and come back to reality to see that youre still you？

Its simple， reality check comes in the moment you come out of the metaverse and realize youre not actually what you designed yourself to be in the virtual world. In real life， youre still not as tall or as chubby as you wish. Gradually， depression will set.

Data and Security

Another potential negative of this world is access and sharing of data. I mean， joining the metaverse will require you sharing huge amount of data with Meta. Which include but not restricted to your behaviors， interest， patterns etc. on a much larger scale.

And judging from history， Meta is not very good at managing data. And giving all these information away is not such a good idea to say the least. Or， what if there is a data breach and someone else has access to those personal information？

Denying Reality

Truth is， you can actually create your own reality in metaverse but who defines whats real and whats not？ I mean， one user can decide to remove some real things from their metaverse just because they dont like it not because those things are not real.

Lets say， you dont like people from certain tribe， this means in your metaverse you can decide to remove them. Or you dont like homeless people or hospitals， you can decide to remove these things. Point is， users can easily deny reality and build a different world in the metaverse and that is a problem.81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075

Why is this a problem？ Well the moment they come out of that virtual world， theyll have to deal with these things. They cant stay in the virtual world forever （or maybe they plan to？）.

Moderation

Who is going to moderate this virtual reality against hate speech or racism？ How will the moderation be carried out？ I mean， moderating social media platforms is already stressful and moderating a whole universe built by different people is a whole new level of stressful.

Will Meta be able to watch every single user and catch every single gesture， characters， speech and text that promotes hate， racism， false news and online bullying？ Meta will need a huge work force to be able to implement this and even at that， itll still be very difficult.

And if moderation is not properly done， the whole virtual world can easily turn into chaos. I mean， not everyone will be there to promote positive vibes only.

At the end， were still humans and well have to eat， drink， and sleep in real life. So， even if we create this whole perfect world on metaverse， well still have to come back and live our lives.

What Meta is proposing is pretty cool and it seems like the future of social media where you get to interact more realistically. You can be whatever you want， do whatever you want and go wherever you want.

But， it also amplifies the negative sides of using social media such as; addiction， harassment， depression and even security issues. And the speed of 5G connectivity is the main reason why this whole virtual universe seems even possible.

I mean， can you imagine using 2G or 3G to access such universe？ The buffering alone would make it extreme difficult to use.

So， while were all excited about the new idea of a Metaverse， its also okay for us to look critically at the negatives. This way， well be able to better prepare ourselves for whats coming “the future of social media”.

元宇宙是一項很酷的技術。但正如其他所有新技術一樣，元宇宙也存在弊端。

成癮

人們已然抱怨，花費了太多時間在互聯網上玩游戲、看電影甚至刷視頻。知道嗎，元宇宙會使人們網上沖浪的時間在此基礎上成倍增加。

試想，誰愿意從自己打造的看似完美的世界迅速抽身而去呢——我是說，元宇宙讓人們夢想成真：擁有完美身材，打卡最佳景點，行事隨心所欲。

這樣一來，人們很容易脫離現實，開始更愿意待在虛擬世界，甚至喜歡虛擬世界勝于真實的個人生活。

自卑與抑郁

社交媒體上的照片讓人們對自己的身體不甚滿意，這一點大家有目共睹。過去幾年間，全球青少年進行整形手術的數量不斷增加。不過，如果你在幻想世界中為自己設計了完美身材，回到現實中卻發現自己仍是原來的樣子，會怎么樣呢？

很簡單，當你走出元宇宙，現實就是一面“照妖鏡”，讓你意識到自己實際上并非虛擬世界中自我設計的那樣。在現實生活中，你仍然沒有理想的身高或者健碩的身形。漸漸地，抑郁情緒就會出現。

數據和安全

元宇宙的另一個潛在弊端是數據訪問和共享。意思是，用戶加入元宇宙就需要向元宇宙平臺公司提供海量數據，包括但不限于個人行為、興趣、生活方式等，共享數據規模會比現在大得多。81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075

而且就以往經驗來看，元宇宙平臺公司并不擅長管理數據。至少可以說，把以上所有信息全權交付該公司并不是個好主意。說白了，如果數據泄露，其他人可以訪問這些個人信息，怎么辦？

否認現實

誠然，人人都可以在元宇宙中創建自己的現實世界，但誰來定義何為真實、何為虛幻？我是說，用戶可以僅憑個人喜好而非真實與否，就在自己的元宇宙中刪除真實存在的東西。

舉個例子，假設你不喜歡某一群體，你就可以決定在自己的元宇宙中剔除他們;如果不喜歡流浪漢或者醫院，可以將其統統刪除。關鍵是，用戶很容易否認現實并在元宇宙中建立一個截然不同的世界，這就是問題所在。

為什么這一點很有問題呢？因為，當人們走出那個虛擬世界時，將不得不面對現實中反感的人或事。他們不可能永遠生活在虛擬世界中（也可能他們打算這樣做？）。

約束

誰來約束虛擬世界以防范仇視言論或種族主義？約束又將如何進行？要知道，約束社交媒體平臺已是壓力重重，而約束由各色人等構建的整個元宇宙將使壓力上升到一個新的高度。

元宇宙平臺公司能否監視每一個用戶的行為并且發現宣揚仇恨、種族主義、虛假新聞及網絡霸凌的每一個手勢和字符、每一條語音和文本？元宇宙平臺公司需要大量人力才能落實這項工作，即便如此，仍然非常困難。

如果約束不到位，整個虛擬世界很容易會變得烏煙瘴氣。要知道，元宇宙中，不是每個人都只傳播正能量。

說到底，我們仍是人，我們還得在現實中吃飯喝水、睡覺休息。所以，即使我們在元宇宙中創造了完美世界，仍需回歸現實生活。

元宇宙平臺公司的提議的確很酷，且貌似正是社交媒體的未來，因為它能提供更真實的互動。你可以成為想成為的任何人，做想做的任何事，去想去的任何地方。

但是，它也放大了使用社交媒體的負面影響，例如成癮、騷擾、抑郁甚至安全問題。此外，高速的5G互聯是整個元宇宙看似可能構建成功的主因。

試問，你能想象使用2G或3G網絡訪問元宇宙嗎？僅僅緩沖加載就會讓使用極度困難。

所以，在我們都為“元宇宙”這一新想法感到興奮的同時，也可以批判性地了解其弊端。只有這樣，我們才能做好更充分的準備去迎接即將到來的“社交媒體的未來”。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者;單位：中南大學）81F69770-B60C-445C-A6A6-EA191ECEF075