Last year Facebook changed its name to ‘Meta’, the ancient Greek prefix for all things ‘above and beyond’, transforming itself into what its founder and CEO-for-life calls ‘a metaverse company’. But what exactly is this metaverse we’ve heard so much of? Most people will think it involves a cutting-edge set of uncomfortable technologies, such as VR headsets, gloves and the like. But that’s not the metaverse.

Listening to the stories coming out of Meta, you might believe the metaverse to be some sort of three-dimensional Facebook—where everyone you’re connected with can be ‘present’ with you, as if they jumped off the web page and into life. But the metaverse is neither a technology, nor some gimmick to make social media somehow ‘more realistic’.