The Orbit Data Science study found 239 different opinions on the topic, with 17 opinion categories.
The theme “metaverse” has become increasingly common in conversation circles, agency briefings and in advertising campaigns. In 2021, when Facebook announced that its company was now called Meta, conversations on the topic heated up, especially on social media. But what do Brazilians, North Americans and Brits think about this issue?
Orbit Data Science analyzed what Twitter, Facebook and Instagram users said about metaversion, from July 2021 to July 2022. In the survey, 3,157 comments on the topic were analyzed, with 1,053 mentions from Brazilians, 1,066 mentions from users from the United States and 1,056 from users in the United Kingdom.
In total, the analysis found 239 distinct types of opinions, which were divided into 17 opinion categories.
In the United Kingdom, the study revealed that the debate on the topic focuses on the discussion of Sexual Harassment in the Metaverse, with 32.2% of the country’s total. In the US, the priority of conversations was divided between Understanding (with 31.5% of opinions) and Facebook (13.9%), with opinions about Mark Zuckerberg’s company.
In Brazil, the Harassment category had only 1.42% of opinions, and the others were distributed mainly between Understanding the Metaverse (37.8% of the total) and Expectation regarding the new technology (17%).
Infrastructure, Understanding and Real Contact
According to the study, users questioned the feasibility of infrastructure and equipment to implement the metaverse, and some recalled the high values of virtual reality glasses and the need for good internet connectivity to enter the digital world.
Among Brazilians, the occurrence of opinions in the category Access to Metaversion’ was more than double the occurrences of the USA and the United Kingdom combined: 30 opinions from Brazilians against 13 from Americans and British). Among the examples of Brazilian comments, are “the vast majority do not have a PC. This reality in Brazil is utopian, since there is no food on the table and the internet in So Lus is horrible, it is not even possible to browse the basics. One of the main capitals of the Brazil. A comes to talk about the metaverse, I’m not even reading emails in the middle of 2022.
In the Understanding category, the survey showed that the most recurrent opinions were from users who said they did not like the idea of a metaversion, nor a virtual world, and that they did not want to participate in this environment. Of all the opinions on Understanding collected in the study, 46% were from people who somehow disapproved of the metaverse idea.
Of the three audiences analyzed, the North Americans were the ones who showed the most aversion to the Metaverse, with 17% of all opposing opinions. The Brazilians, in 13% of the cases, showed a disagreement with the platform and the British only 8% had opinions against the idea of the Metaverse.
In the comments analyzed, the research pointed out that there was less limitation of the virtual world to reproduce reality and about 7% of the category “Understanding” stated that the metaverse cannot reproduce all of reality.
Regarding the lack of knowledge about what Metaverse is, the analysis showed that Brazilians were the ones who most stated that they did not know well what this virtual environment is, with 67% of the opinions that assumed lack of knowledge about Metaverse.
The universe of games was also closely associated with the Metaverse, whether comparing it to other games, commenting on the graphical interface or assimilating experiences between platforms. The Metaversion associations most found in this study were to the game The Sims, with 25% of all comparisons to games, and then to the Second Life platform (with 23%).
In the “Expectations” category, the study found that 34% of the public analyzed is excited about the possibilities that the metaverse can present. Brazilians were the ones who were most excited about the possibilities of the virtual world, with 42% of the occurrences, followed by Americans with 38%.
On the other hand, the study also pointed to a disbelief with the metaversion and about 13% of the expectations were that the metaversion will not succeed. Brazilians again led the way in this regard, with 62% of them.
Society, Harassment and Business
The survey showed that the categories “society”, “harassment” and “business” were the ones that stood out the most.
In “society”, the study found opinions with a pessimistic view, sometimes even apocalyptic, in which the implications of the metaverse in the context of society were presented. The most recurrent opinion was that the Metaverso reproduces the problems of society, said mainly by the British, who represented 43% of opinions as they are, followed by Brazilians with 32%.
The survey also noted that part of the public believes that the internet should be used for “more useful things”, with half of this type of opinion coming from Brazilian users.
In the “harassment” category, news about harassment in the virtual world was commented on by the three audiences analyzed, with 86% coming from the British.
Of all the opinions on harassment, 30% criticized the cases that occurred in the metaversion. However, 53% of all opinions on the subject downplayed the cases, either mocking, denying or claiming that it was a user to “disconnect to avoid harassment”.
About “business”, the study pointed out that the public is more optimistic and 18% of the comments say that the virtual world “will boost the market”. The optimistic comments were mostly made by Brazilians. The negatives were mostly made by Americans.
The Orbit Data Science study concludes that, among the three countries, there is indeed a discussion on the topic, possibilities, impacts, challenges and expectations for the virtual world. In addition, the survey also concludes that, despite sharing many opinions, the different national situations lead to different reflections.
In Brazil, the discussion permeates the structural problems that can prevent access to the Metaverse, while in the United Kingdom, the relevance of crimes committed in a virtual environment is already discussed.
However, it is common to all countries to pay attention to some key points, such as: business, society and harassment. If, on the one hand, the virtual environment is seen as a possible driver and generator of new business, on the other hand, the possibility of its being used as a resource for money laundering is already being discussed.
In the same way, if there is already talk about the benefits that can be generated by the advance of technology, there is also fear about its possible negative impacts.
In addition, companies that will promote or participate in the metaverse will have to deal with this new way of relating through avatars and real employees, making HR departments need to deal with a new challenge: governance in virtual environments.
