Whatever happened to the metaverse?

During the pandemic, the world learned the word for what you get when the lines between the real world and the internet blur: The metaverse. In theory, most people have wrapped their heads around the concept. But what do we do in and with this metaverse? First mentioned in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, the metaverse is essentially an online world where you can go to school, go to work, play games, watch concerts, go shopping, and much more without ever leaving your home. It's the two-dimensional texts-and-images internet come to life à  la the mirror worlds…