How to Worship in the Metaverse: Religious Experience and the Affordances of a New Medium

The extent to which the metaverse will become a site for religious and spiritual experience depends on how the aims of users align with the new medium’s potentialities for action, or “affordances”. Affordances are formed as the social, technological, and contextual capacities of a medium are recogni...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Adria, Marco 1959- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: MDPI 2024
In: Religions
Year: 2024, Volume: 15, Issue: 4
Further subjects:B metaverse
B Online Religion
B media affordances
B New Media
B Virtual Reality
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:The extent to which the metaverse will become a site for religious and spiritual experience depends on how the aims of users align with the new medium’s potentialities for action, or “affordances”. Affordances are formed as the social, technological, and contextual capacities of a medium are recognized and then enacted by users. This exploratory essay argues that the metaverse’s affordances, which overlap with those of already existing virtual reality (VR) environments, can deepen a sense of belonging for users of online religious spaces and mediate new ways of being present in those spaces. The following affordances of the metaverse (and of VR) are discussed analytically in the essay: immersion, presence, embodiment, usability, empathy, and contemplation. The phases of the continuing “buildout” of the metaverse are also assessed to uncover their likely effects on the metaverse’s affordances. These phases are massive scale, system interoperability, robust rendering, and persistent continuity.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel15040487