What the 'Metaverse' Means for Your Love Life

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What is the metaverse?

The metaverse, you know, if something is meta, it's above or outside of, you know, that's why you got metaphysics, which is like, what the nature of things, of themselves, you know. But the metaverse is essentially an alternate universe above or outside of our own universe. It's seen as, this is where the Internet is going, this is the next stage. Now, sometimes these things go on endless hype cycles and never live up to it, but sometimes it really is where things are going. We may be in the early stages, we don't know, but the idea is you have virtual reality, you have full online spaces, you have worlds you can actually immerse yourself in completely, where there might be the office, shopping, hanging out with people, going to bars, conferencing, and all this stuff we're doing now sat in front of our screens we might do in a ready player one type scenario.

So, okay, how does the metaverse relate to dating, Steve? Well, this has been a sort of topic that's suddenly come to light.

Yeah. So obviously online dating, it, you know, it's been around a long time now, but it like, obviously exploded over the last decade with Tinder and the apps, and it really came into its own. And that's something that was always there but then really tipped over into mainstream. And I suppose this could go the same way. I suspect it will just live alongside the current Internet. I don't know if it will replace it entirely, but the idea is that, you know, everyone knows Match is the biggest, like, dating company. They own Tinder and a bunch of the big dating apps. And I think they see it as. There's this company called hyperconnect in Korea, and they kind of have this vision for using real time virtual spaces, like a bar where you'll have live conversations. They've talked about a place called singletown where users will interact in real time, or they can connect privately and go and talk private. And so I guess it's like, well, you find online dating a bit, you know, a little bit of a remove now. Well, maybe this is a more immersive version where you get to go on a date with the actual person in the metaverse. You can actually sit across from them virtually. Maybe their avatar has a way of linking to your verified. You know, it has to be verifiable. So maybe your avatar has to look like you or something. But, you know, you know, you can actually get a better sense of dating them without leaving your living room.

Do you. Do you sort of feel like in some Sense. We haven't come that far from like AOL Instant Chat from back in the day, like this, this I, you know, when was it, what was AOL chat called?

It was just, just AOL Chat.

IOL Chat. It was like one of the OG ones that I just remember using and thinking, this is unbelievable. I'm talking to someone in real time somewhere else in the world and it still had this incredible novelty about it and, and somewhere along the way, I don't know, it feels like we sort of departed from that a little bit in the sense that it, it's become commenting on posts, commenting on videos. But I just remember that Real time chat was something that had this appeal at the beginning of what most of us experienced as the Internet. The metaverse of dating is, is this environment that puts an actual avatar to that and a physical space, I suppose, or a, a metaphysical space that we can exist in and talk to someone, I suppose. I'm fascinated to think about what, what does this do? What does this allow people to do that they might not do in real life? You know, like, what does it give people that they don't get in real life? What do you think, Steve?

You could just see it as a convenience thing where you can do the things you would do in real life much faster together. You could go to a live concert together in the metaverse, you could go to the shops, you could hang at a bar and people might just be like, I bloody hate having to get into the car, dress up on the date and go to the bar. Now I can find out if we have chemistry in the virtual bar and. But move on.

Are we saying that your face, your actual face, you take a picture and it sort of wraps your face around this avatar's head, or are we saying that you choose a face for your avatar?

Well, this is the interesting part, isn't it? I think if, if it, if it is just the real you, then it is an extension of the, the online app dating experience. The virtual you then just adds all these possibilities.

Yeah, but is it, what is it going to actually get? People's accurate. Are people going to lie about their body shapes? Are you going to get, is there going to be an unnatural number of six foot two men in there?

That's the tricky bit where you go.

They can't, they can't. Is it, are we going to have to actually take pictures and verify the body shapes and the ratios that we put on there so that what we actually look like is what we look like?

We might, right? We might have to do body scan or something for it. If it's the avatar version. Like, it adds this weird possibility, right. Which I'm sure will definitely happen, where some people will have an entirely virtual relationship and never meet and they will only date in the metaverse and meet up. Could be someone across the world. Right. And you just put on your headset and go on these dates. It's a little limited on the old physical side.

Unless, you know, once they start involving haptic suits.

Right.

And, and now you can get it on via the haptic suits. That's game over, mate.

Right. I mean, you've looked into haptic suits more than I have, it seems. But that's beyond my pay grade.

Well, no, no, they've. Steve, I'll have you know. And I'm not. Before you make your little joke. I haven't been to one of them, but I've walked past those places in Tokyo where you. This VR porn. You can go into a place and there's VR porn, but you're actually wearing a haptic suit as you're watching VR porn. That's.

You said you were going to hike Mount Fuji that day.

So what some people like to call it. No, yeah. Hiking Mount Fuji does sound like a euphemism from the, from, from the beginning. I, it, I, I find this pretty fascinating because the. If you can suddenly just be what you think is a better looking you or a different person altogether and exist in this world where you could potentially be better looking, build up social capital that you don't have in the real world and, and essentially be a rock star in the metaverse that you don't feel like you are in your real life, that then gets a little scary, doesn't it?

There may just be all the same status games anyway. If there's like. Because they're talking about these things where there's these things now, Tinder coins, but they talk about extending those. And then it's just like, who buys more flashy stuff in the metaverse and has the flashy. The flashy car or the flashy thing they show off or let me show what I can afford for my avatar.

Right, right. Yeah. There'll be some. The equivalent of a blue ticket next to your head on them in the metaverse that shows that you're someone of status or who has a lot of followers in the metaverse. Yeah, it, it's, it's very interesting.

Yeah, it could. I. That's one of my. I'm not pessimistic the way some people are on like the future of dating. I think there are problems and concerns I have, but I, you know, there's things that might be better, right? We might just get more better at matching people or online dating just does allow you to meet people you wouldn't have otherwise found in your city. And there's, there's certain matching potential in online dating that doesn't exist normally. But I think if you end up with like even more strata stuff where like there's closed off influencer corner of dating and everything just gets more, even more stratified, doesn't it? And there's, there's this kind of weird, weird dystopian, like stratified society. So yeah, I, I don't know, I'm not, I think we have to be careful of status quo bias here where people are just scared of everything new. But it will probably be like, like online dating, it'll probably be a mixed old bag.

There is something interesting. The most of everything that's been mentioned, the most practical application I can, I, I, I've seen from, or I can imagine from this is that idea of being able to go on a date with someone who's not in your immediate area. You know, I don't think that it would be a shame if the metaverse stopped you going to a movie with someone who you could easily go to a movie with in your actual town. That would be a sorry state of affairs. But if it's can get you on an actual date with someone who is a little further out or can't be in the same place as you right now, that's sort of interesting. A lot of potential for long distance relationships if nothing else.

One thing I will say, Matt, is it could make dates a lot cheaper.

That's a very good point.

A lot of time, a lot of money on dates if you go on a lot of them.

And that is a big complaint of a lot of men.

So maybe this is the savior we all needed.

I think you're just talking about yourself here, Steve. I think you're projecting.

I do spend money, I do spend money on dates. For the record, I'm not going to have it said that I don't.

Right. Wow, you're a real chivalrous man.

Thank you.

Matt, what do you think of the metaverse out there? Leave us a. Send us an email, let us know what you have. Is there some big pro or big con about this that we haven't considered? Email podcasty.com Let us know your thoughts on the dating metaverse. God help us. I have something for you. And it's better than the Metaverse. It's an actual guide that gives you very practical things that you can say to create real momentum in your love life. These are literal things that you can say to people and text people that will move the ball forward so you don't get stuck in the casual dating traps. Go to momentumtexts.com check it out for yourself. It'll cost you barely more than one of those swanky little coffees you drink, and it will help your dating life a whole lot more than that caffeine will. You don't have to choose. You can do both. Enjoy. Momentumtexts.com.

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