Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 1

Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information:

The underlying appeal of Metaverse.

Sudarshan Das

23520036

MASC Sem II

IIT Gandhinagar, Digital Cultures and New Media

Digital Cultures and New Media (HS-631)

Assignment I

Prof. Sohini Goyen

28th January, 2024

Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 2

What if I tell you to close your eyes and imagine Lata Mangeshkar? Please try
it. What came up to the mind? The image of an elderly woman? What if I had
asked this question 50 years back? When the internet or the TV were not a
common thing. Only perhaps radio was. Would imagination be visual (as it is
now), or would it be auditory? What would you have thought? A face or a
voice?
The human imagination and the mode of remembrance have always been
affected by the media it consumes, thus in the wake of the emergence of new
mediums of interaction with [information and] the (virtual) world, like the
Metaverse recently in development by Meta, formerly Facebook, it becomes
essential to understand the mediums and the media themselves. Once we resided
in the print media-dominated era, I believe it has now changed to an audio-
visual-dominated era. However, how did we reach here? How did media evolve
into this? What made us leave the print media and convince us that VR headsets
showcasing a ‘fake’ replica of the real world is the future?

Somehow, we have managed to crawl back into Plato’s Cave.

One of the earliest ways of navigating reality has been the literary/rhetoric
device of metaphor. They are understanding one thing through the vessel of
another. Extending this device to the world of social science, in the context of
media, medium, and message, the media is often confused for the message
itself: a rhetorical disfiguration and a common mistake.
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 3

If the clock is the medium and time its message, did the message exist prior to
the existence of the medium? Before the invention of any time-keeping device,
did time exist?

Can time be counted in the crashing of waves and happiness spent?

Clocks once were a metaphor for time, but now they are confused for Time
itself. Time was not always this distinct chuck of minutes divided evenly into
sixty segments.
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 4

Metaverse, though now synonymous with the tech company Meta, formerly
Facebook, is not a single definitive concept as of yet; neither does any single
company have a single hold over it. Metaverse, without a fixed definition, is the
loosely based concept of enabling the participants to create an ‘avatar’, a
representation of themselves in the virtual world, to explore and interact in a
virtual world with similar virtual players. The virtual world where this
interaction will happen is developed differently by different companies for
different means. Some had existed for quite some time, primarily in the gaming
realm, like the 2003 video game Second Life. Others are actively being
developed for entertainment purposes like “Lil Nas X performed the first Roblox
concert in 2020, over 3 million people watched” (The Week Junior – Science +
Nature. 12th Aug 2022, ‘Enter the Metaverse’) and “Premier League champions
Manchester City and its new partner Sony have begun building a virtual replica
of the Etihad Stadium, which will be the team’s central hub in the metaverse”
(Newar, 2022).
Postman (1985), in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, writes that the train
was the fastest means of communication for a long time. The speed of
information was limited by the speed at which we could physically traverse
space; however, with the invention of the telegraph, information could be
transferred in minutes instead of hours. This was the introduction of a new
medium. When a new medium is introduced, it is not just an advanced version
of an old medium, just like a computer is not just a better typewriter or a
lightbulb a more advanced candle, it brings with itself a complete change in the
order of things, much like Eliot’s theory of change in literary tradition. The car
was not just a faster horse because this medium evolved other surrounding
mediums into something else too; cities are now planned to make them car-
centric, house designs have changed to accommodate a driveway directly
connecting the garage, and it has even changed how much we value nature by
pitting electric v/s diesel cars.
With the invention of the telegraph, how we approached information itself
changed. For the first time, we could receive information about things
thousands of miles away. For the first time, we were getting answers to
questions that no one asked or thought of. Newspapers were no longer bound to
report only the (local) important events but could report the most distant and
shocking events, even if they had no personal connections to people who would
receive the news, as long as it was fast and new.
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 5

With this new medium, what was valued now was not notable information but
fast (and shocking) information. Thus began the commodification of
information.
“how often does it occur that information provided to you on morning radio or
television or newspaper, causes you to alter your plans for the day (which prior
to speedy information could have caused if the news was only about your local
town) or to take some action that you would not otherwise have taken?”
(Postman, 1985)
The commodification of information is most prominent in today’s digital news
media, i.e., TV channels. News media trying to out-fast each other and provide
the most recent and latest information on anything. On anything as long as it is
the latest news. Even if it is the most irrelevant news. There are now dedicated
Twitter handles that report the most recent celebrity gossip, down to the location
of celebrities until the last hour through paparazzi. However, why does the
audience lap this up? Obviously, there’s the element of celebrity worshiping; but
were there not Gods to worship? Or, as Nietzsche said, we have killed him?
What made an entire generation rationalize celebrity worshiping and gossiping?
Or caring about something random, like an earthquake happening on another
continent? Because it was taught that the basis of selection/prioritization of
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 6

information is its fastness and novelty, not its relevance. This creates a constant
demand and supply loop of fast and new but irrelevant news/information.
If the news/information/media is not good/new/exciting enough, the audience is
conditioned to just….

“Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?” – Andy
Warhol
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 7

Metaverse, as of now, is a relatively empty land. Comparable to pre-colonized

America or Australia. The natives are the developers and the investors. Only
this time the land is actively for sale. Server spaces are being sold for the
promise that once this land populates, you can do business on them. Buy some
digital land and set up something, like a software to screen virtual movies there.
Instead of going to actual theatres or even watching on their mobile phones,
people might pop up a headset and watch VR movies on your VR software in
your cinema hall that stands on your digital land. “Investors are buying up plots
of land in cyberspace. Sometimes for millions of dollars, seemingly convinced
there must be gold in them.” (Ravenscraft, 2021) But what is the appeal of this
cyberspace though? Is it the allure of entering a never-ending world? A world of
constant newness and novelty? Or is it the ability to constantly change yourself
in relation to how you interact with the world? The ability to change your avatar
in the metaverse in an instant. The fastness and non-boundedness of your
identity.
…change the channel or scroll away from the content. Just like I changed the
topic in the last paragraph.
While Picasso showcased the fragmentation of the modern world (and thus all
the information we receive in it) Andy Warhol succeeded him in the art scene
and showcased the mass repetitive nature of the world. Pop art exists on the
assumption that you know about pop culture and that you are up-to-date (which
you can never be), and thus, the art does not need any more context than its
contemporary existence. The rows of Marilyn Monroe’s lips produced by
Warhol depict that message. The context is so violently taken out that the art is
no more about Marilyn, but is about a mass-produced sex symbol. Images now
exist separate from the context they present. Information today is treated the
same way. Flashy headlines and segments like ‘News in 60 seconds’ (One-
minute World News, n.d.) prioritize information over context and condition us
into accepting that as the norm of receiving information. The context can be
(and becomes) whatever you can imagine it to be.
You can be whatever you can imagine to be in the Metaverse. “As one of the six
main metaverse pillars, avatars represent the user, allowing them to choose their
desired identity.” and “avatars can be easily swapped out, this digital identity
can be adjusted frequently depending on mood” (Sandbox, 2023). You can be a
dragon in one chat room, a blue-haired girl in another, and a chair in yet another.
Your image precedes the context you need to provide in this world.
The Plato’s cave does not entertain reality, but it is cozy for sure.
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 8

References
Levine, S., & McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The extensions of

man. American Quarterly, 16(4), 646. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711172

Newar, B. (2022, February 22). Manchester City to build Etihad Stadium in the

metaverse. Cointelegraph. https://cointelegraph.com/news/manchester-

city-to-build-etihad-stadium-in-the-metaverse

One-minute World News. (n.d.). [Video]. BBC News.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/10462520

Postman, N. (1985). Amusing ourselves to death.

https://www.exodusbooks.com/Samples/Penguin/1235Foreword.pdf

Ravenscraft, E. (2021, December 26). The metaverse land rush is an illusion.

WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/metaverse-land-rush-illusion/

Sandbox. (2023, April 26). Study reveals how avatars shape digital identity in

the metaverse. Medium. https://medium.com/sandbox-game/study-

reveals-how-avatars-shape-digital-identity-in-the-metaverse-

3dac23a8f3f2

The Week Junior - Science + Nature (12th Aug 2022). “Enter the Metaverse”

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, January 21). Metaverse. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse

Wikipedia contributors. (2024a, January 15). Andy Warhol. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol
Media, Metaverse, and the Commodification of Information 9

Appendix

Not labeling the pictures/illustrations was a deliberate choice so as not to break

the flow of the article and help illustrate some of the meta-narratives I used, like
preceding Warhol’s illustration before giving the context to highlight how in
this audio-visual media-dominated world, images are now preceding the
context.
The labeling of the pictures is provided below for better clarity –
 Picture 1 – Illustration of Plato’s Cave
 Picture 2 – Two women playing by the sea. Photo taken from public
domain.
 Picture 3 – Newspaper Clippings depicting shock content. Photo taken
from public domain.
 Picture 4 – Print of Marilyn Monroe’s lips by Andy Warhol. Photo taken
from public domain.