No more "web pages", "video players", hypertext links and the small cross at the top right to disconnect.
For Facebook, the interfaces we currently use for "surfing online" are obsolete.
Digital offers many features, but struggles to compete with what real life feels like.
To remedy this and build the web of tomorrow, Facebook announced on Monday the creation of 10,000 new highly qualified jobs in Europe, mainly for engineers, researchers and product managers.
They must erect the “metaverse”, the new virtual environment on which the platform works, a much more immersive three-dimensional interface.
You smile and your digital character smiles
In the "metaverse", no need to scroll, call or send messages.
Everyone has a virtual avatar that allows them to move and interact, as in real life.
No more need for emoticons: you smile and your digital character smiles.
The "metaverse" promises a new depth to social networks, but also to videoconferences, concerts broadcast online, shopping on the Internet ...
“For several years now, digital and video game companies have been trying to build these virtual worlds,” explains François Stephan, director of the ECE, a digital engineering school. In 2018, Steven Spielberg brought the concept to life in the film Ready Player One. Using a helmet and a suit that simulates physical sensations such as touch, the main character “downloads” himself and evolves in a global virtual reality system.
This is about what Facebook wants to do, for its social network as for its applications intended for professionals, or its virtual stores - the famous marketplace.
“In recent years, we have made tremendous progress in virtual reality and augmented reality, connected objects.
Facebook considers that the market is opening up and that the technologies are ready, ”continues François Stephan.
"Project for 20 or 30 years"
And the equipment to reproduce reality, or to superimpose additional information on it, already exists. Virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, wireless headphones, and gloves that simulate touch are improving rapidly. In 2014, the Facebook group bought Oculus, a manufacturer of virtual reality headsets that have continued to get lighter since they were first marketed in 2016.
We reach the goal, but the "metaverse" is not for now. "We are still light years away from the world described in the film Ready Player One", tempers Julien Pillot, professor of economics and strategy at the INSEEC business school. The virtual environment does not yet exist. And the paraphernalia needed to access it could be off-putting. “It's a project that involves looking at 20 or 30 years,” concludes the specialist.
Beyond the technical challenge, there are many obstacles.
To build its “metaverse”, Facebook is going to need even more data.
Yesterday, a profile picture was enough.
Tomorrow, social networks will show facial expressions or the approach of users.
For that, it will be necessary to give its measurements, or to agree to be filmed at any moment ... "The metaverse raises again the question of the consent, the right to be forgotten or to erase its personal data guaranteed by the RGPD", underlines Julie Carel, data lawyer at Momentum Associés.
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“Entrusting a whole world to Facebook is a bit worrying,” adds Michaël Stora, digital psychologist. If Facebook manages to build its virtual universe, it will be according to its rules. And at the moment, they are particularly criticized. The platform is accused of masking the harmful effects of its algorithms on public debate and on mental health. "The immersive power of the metaverse could amplify the cleavage, conspiracy, interpersonal skills and addictions conveyed by the platform," warns the specialist.
As in Ready Player One, some might be tempted to flee reality and take refuge "in" Facebook.
Finally, we must not forget that the first interest of the platform is to retain the attention of its users, to sell advertising.
In other words, it could be that the oasis promised by the Californian firm mainly serves to project advertising on every street corner.
A corner of paradise lost.