Exploring the darkverse: a multi-perspective analysis of the negative societal impacts of the metaverse

Abstract

The Metaverse has the potential to form the next pervasive computing archetype that can transform many aspects of work and life at a societal level. Despite the many forecasted benefits from the metaverse, its negative outcomes have remained relatively unexplored with the majority of views grounded on logical thoughts derived from prior data points linked with similar technologies, somewhat lacking academic and expert perspective. This study responds to the dark side perspectives through informed and multifaceted narratives provided by invited leading academics and experts from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The metaverse dark side perspectives covered include: technological and consumer vulnerability, privacy, and diminished reality, human–computer interface, identity theft, invasive advertising, misinformation, propaganda, phishing, financial crimes, terrorist activities, abuse, pornography, social inclusion, mental health, sexual harassment and metaverse-triggered unintended consequences. The paper concludes with a synthesis of common themes, formulating propositions, and presenting implications for practice and policy.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Dwivedi, Y.K. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-9990 Kshetri, N. Hughes, L. Rana, N.P. Baabdullah, A.M. Kar, A.K. Koohang, A. Ribeiro-Navarrete, S. Belei, N. Balakrishnan, J. Basu, S. Behl, A. Davies, G.H. Dutot, V. Dwivedi, R. Evans, L. Felix, R. Foster-Fletcher, R. Giannakis, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5590-1891 Gupta, A. Hinsch, C. Jain, A. Jane Patel, N. Jung, T. Juneja, S. Kamran, Q. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2571-8786 Mohamed AB, S. Pandey, N. Papagiannidis, S. Raman, R. Rauschnabel, P.A. Tak, P. Taylor, A. tom Dieck, M.C. Viglia, G. Wang, Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1575-0245 Yan, M.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	Dark side of the metaverse; Metaverse; Negative consequences; Second life; Unintended consequences; Virtual reality; Virtual world
Dates:	Published: October 2023 Published (online): 2 June 2023 Accepted: 4 May 2023
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	10 Oct 2023 15:39
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2023 15:39
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-023-10400-x
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1007/s10796-023-10400-x
Related URLs:	PubMed URL
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:204055

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Exploring the darkverse: a multi-perspective analysis of the negative societal impacts of the metaverse

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