Would you spend 4 hours a day in the metaverse?

IF some of the tech giants get their way, we will soon be shopping, getting our entertainment fix and even working in the metaverse. But are today's Internet users ready to take up residence in these virtual worlds?

A recent McKinsey report investigated how we're feeling about these various universes, touted by some industry watchers to be the future of the Internet.

In 1992, American author Neal Stephenson published his novel "Snow Crash," in which he outlined a universe that existed in parallel to physical reality where citizens interact as avatars. He gave it the name of metaverse.

Reality has now caught up with fiction, under the impetus of Mark Zuckerberg and other tech boffins in Silicon Valley. In May 2021, the boss of Meta told CNET that the metaverse will allow internet users to immerse themselves in virtual reality, rather than simply experiencing it from behind a screen.

However, many skeptics wonder how many of us earthlings will really show up. McKinsey provides some insight to the question through its survey of more than 1,000 American consumers between the ages of 13 and 70 about their understanding of these digital worlds.

While there is still no universal definition of the metaverse, 47% of those surveyed were able to describe it using keywords such as "immersive" and "interactive."

A majority of survey participants (55%) had also heard of platforms that are laying the groundwork for the metaverse, such as Roblox, Fortnite and Decentraland.

Nearly 30% have even tested the waters of the metaverse. Even more surprisingly, they expect to spend a lot of time on these virtual worlds in the near future.

Millennials and Gen Zers predict that they will spend more than four hours a day in such spaces within five years. Gen Xers, those born between 1960 and 1980, expect to spend 3.6 hours a day, compared to 1.8 hours for Baby Boomers.

So what will they do there? A lot of things, according to the McKinsey report. Shopping remains the most popular activity among respondents, followed by medical consultations and online courses.

Only 37% of respondents imagine participating in a business meeting in the metaverse, and 28% imagine dating in the metaverse.