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I love dinner time. As the kids drag their daily news away from their screens, my partner and I settle in. It’s like a lottery spin, anyone’s guess where the conversation will land.
Tonight’s looped from the morning’s school-drop discussion on how DuoLingo uses TikTok to own themselves better than most brands (it’s really gold) to a sudden abrupt flip to the word on everyone’s lips: Metaverse.
Disclaimer: We don’t have a lot of Zuckerberg fans in the house, to state that from the onset.
“He’s kind of gunning for President of the Metaverse,” I offer.
“Yeah, he’s to the metaverse what Trump is to America,” my partner chimes in.
And off the Gen Zs go! They speak at a thousand words a second, clambering over each other to share their insights. Multiple tirades, trying to juggle a future of mental health concerns, wealth gaps and the complexity of conceptualising the merger of digital and real worlds.
“Wait, Reddit’s been crazy about this video, scroll to the gaming section!” the second youngest Whatsapps the link to the Family Group as he makes inappropriate quips about the robotic nature of people.