Children - the workforce of tomorrow - will decide the future of the Internet
No one asked for another hype piece on the metaverse, so I’m here to bring you the reality of the situation.
As adults, we might think that the future and the fate of the Internet is in our hands, but it’s not: it’s in the hands of our children:
The adults of today - who have been branded “Generation X” (born 1965 to 1980) and “Millennials” (born 1981 to 1996) - spearheaded the transition from traditional media such as radio, fax machines, and television to new media platforms such as websites, smartphones, and social media platforms.
Now, Generation Z (born 1997 to 2010) and Generation Alpha (born 2011-2024) are heralding the “third age of the Internet” (also known as Web3 or the metaverse), the convergence of physical and virtual spaces accessed through computers, iPads, phones or headsets, and enabled by immersive technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality.
These 3D virtual worlds, such as Roblox, Fortnite, VRChat, or Minecraft, are persistent, collective, and shared spaces. We run around and socialize as digital avatar versions of ourselves, buy NFT sports shoes, and dress them in clothes that defy the rules of physics. Purple skin, furry animals aka the “furries” – anything goes when you’re an avatar.
Roblox has grown in popularity over the years, with over 71.5 million daily users and 216 million monthly active users, influencing a move away from social media into VR worlds.
And here’s where it gets really interesting: Out of the 400 million monthly active users on VR and metaverse platforms - more than 51% of these are children aged 13 and younger.
“Children under the age of 13 are spending more time on Roblox than on YouTube, Netflix, and Facebook combined. Let that sink in,” says Timmu Toke, the CEO of ReadyPlayerMe.
Because they’ve been accustomed to immersive environments while their brains are still developing, they are the first generation to be far less likely to get motion sickness in 3D environments. In fact, they are even being treated pediatrically for pain and anxiety using VR.
Just like the dot com bubble in the early 2000s, there will be a lot of winners and losers in this space. As new technologies emerge and evolve, business breakthroughs and deaths will be announced at the same time. Do we ever still speak about MP3 players? Nokia phones? Pagers? No, but they influenced a shift in how we listen to music and communicate.
It’s still early days, and just like when Bill Gates described the Internet back in the 1980s as “a business directory of sorts” we don’t exactly know what the future holds, but we are starting to form some ideas…
The question is not whether Gen Z and Gen Alpha will beckon the future of the Internet, but rather how they will bring this change, and what this new age of the Internet could look like.
Let’s investigate…
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The Virtual Natives
Born well into the Information Age, a majority of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, aka ‘the iPad kids’, were figuratively born with smartphones and tablets in their hands. In the United States alone, 43% of Gen Alphas had tablets before the age of six, 58% received their first iPhone by age 10, and they’ve grown up immersed in the virtual worlds.
Industry experts Jeremy Denisty and Dado Van Peteghem, authors of the book The Virtual Economy, refer to these generations as the first “virtual natives”, rather than “digital natives”. Unlike millennials who grew up with digital devices, Z and Alpha took it a step further and were immersed in games and virtual experiences from day one. Existing in Fortnite and Roblox is a simple fact of life for them. It’s just normal, not something groundbreaking.
While the digital economy mainly relies on creating, selling, and buying goods and services digitally (like on websites and social media), the virtual economy has economic activities carried out in virtual environments.
Demographically speaking, Denisty and Van Peteghem foresee that the Alpha Generation will be the most diverse generation in history. That’s because they have grown up in an era of increased globalization and cultural evolution, and therefore are expected to be more multicultural than any previous generation. Even the way they learn and study is projected to be different, given that AI assistants and educational virtual environments are on the horizon.
Self-expression and identity in children
Clothing is more than just fabric; it's a form of self-expression and identity. I will never forget the time I stood up on stage at my school talent quest to sing. I was 16 years old, dressed in pink from head to toe, with a fluffy pink boa, and big platform heels (not so unlike the ones that I enjoy wearing today).
As soon as I started singing “Na Na Na Na” to Gwen Stafani’s “Rich Girl”, and I saw the kids in the audience side-eyeing one another, I realized that wearing this fantastical outfit was a huge mistake (because ‘dressing up’ in the Darfield countryside often involves wearing gumboots and stubbies short shorts…)
For many years after that, I toned myself down and quit the sparkles in an effort to fit in with my classmates, even though it didn’t feel like ‘me’.
Clothing is not just about covering our bodies; it is a form of self-expression, communication, and cultural identity. And for children, clothing is an essential part of their social development; The clothes they wear play a significant role in how they perceive themselves and interact with the world. It helps them identify with their peers, express their personality, and develop confidence and a sense of self.
Shockingly, more than half (56%) of Gen Z users said that styling their avatar in Roblox is more important to them than styling themselves in the physical world.
When I spent 48 hours non-stop in the metaverse (I produced a documentary about my experience) I started to understand why. I loved the fact that I wasn’t constricted by the rules of physics like I am with fashion in the real world. I was anonymous; I could be whoever I wanted, and wear whatever I wanted. On metaverse platforms, dresses made out of fire or melting ice are fair game, and the only limit is our imagination.
It doesn’t just stop at avatar fashion, this is full-on glam, baby! Over half (54%) of Gen Z agree that makeup helps complement their avatar’s beauty, and in 2023, Roblox users purchased more than 139 million digital hairstyles for their avatars.
“This is who I am,” I recently heard a child telling her mother while zooming in on her avatar on her iPad.
It was the way the child phrased that sentence that caught my attention. She didn’t say, “Mama, look at my avatar”, or “See these new clothes I bought for my avatar.” She said, “This is who I am”. Her very identity was linked to the “version of herself” in that game.
A new frontier for brands
“Go where your customers are” is a common business saying. But now we are in an age where everyone is where the attention is, and they are all competing for it.
Social media used to be social – we used to post a bag of crisps, get 20 likes from our friends, and not care that there weren’t more. We used to bond over our shared experiences on Facebook Groups such as ‘Like This Group If You Sleep On Your Side’.
Unfortunately now, this is not the case. Everyone seems to be an ‘influencer’ and numerous studies in recent years have proven that social media has also left people angrier, unhappy, and at times left feeling increasingly isolated. These supposedly social platforms have been used to spread misinformation and disinformation, while further dividing us.
But that was the Web2 era. Now, in Web3, the focus has shifted to community, experience, and loyalty, which Denisty and Van Peteghem believe is the ‘magic triangle’ for success in the virtual economy. After all, Web3 brings with it new dimensions of engagement.
In the metaverse, you can own digital assets (I own a virtual penthouse overlooking the Vegas skyline, with a helicopter and jacuzzi, on the platform Saptial.io), bringing about new and interesting buying behaviors. We’ve gone from buying songs on our iPods to owning NFT art, digital real estate, and other assets.
Web3 also allows us to experience true decentralization away from profit-hungry companies like those dominating Big Tech. Sure, a lot of the metaverse is still tied up with Silicon Valley, but there are also avenues for true freedom of exploration, creation, and expression (just look at Decentraland, for example). Transactions, especially, are safer and more transparent, thanks to blockchain technology that plays such a big part in Web3.
Brands have realized that to succeed in the virtual economy, you need to build a community. Nike has been courting the next gen of athletes with Nikeland, a purpose-built gaming experience on Roblox for young fans to meet, socialize, take part in promotions, and engage with a whole range of brand experiences. They build brand loyalty by rewarding players for virtual items for gameplay, and incentivises them to explore the brand beyond the metaverse.
It was estimated that Nikeland has seen over 30 million visitors and it's been estimated to make up a staggering 26% of Nike’s total revenue. Crazy, right?!
Next in Fashion: Phygital
The future is phygital. Roblox recently released a report that said 84% of Gen Z said they’re at least 'somewhat likely' to consider a brand in the physical world once they try on or wear its item on their avatars virtually, including 50% who are 'very' or 'extremely' likely to do so.
In 2022, Gucci’s 'Dionysus Bag with Bee' sold for about USD $4,115 (350,000 Robux) — more than the ACTUAL physical handbag, which retails for USD $3,400.
When I was visiting our metaverse fashion brand partners at Boltable Studios recently, 24-year-old founder Zain Tambe told me that he would like to dress like his Roblox avatar #IRL in the future. In fact, he believes that Roblox fashion will influence our real-life fashion. Will we see the next H&M or Zara start and gain popularity in the metaverse before transitioning to the real world? Zain thinks so…
The metaverse is not ‘dead,’ it’s just not quite here yet
"The children and teenagers buying NFTs and avatar accessories today are the same people who will be opening their wallets and have all the purchasing power in the near future. They are going to be used to things being done a certain way and will drive innovation.
Will we fully give way to avatars and virtual experiences?
Will we live double lives?
Will we end up spending 24/7 in a VR headset, so immersed in our virtual lives that being in the real world holds little to no interest to us?
I think a more likely environment is an augmented reality overlay that sits across our real world. Perhaps we will have beautiful virtual planets suspended in our homes, or we will conduct meetings with our team from all around the world in the same boardroom, as a hologram. Perhaps our brain-computer interfaces or digital twins will take down AI summaries of the meeting minutes.
But who knows. Only one thing is certain: the children of today will create the futures of tomorrow.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR, BRIAR PRESTIDGE:
Based between New York and Dubai, Briar Prestidge is a serial entrepreneur, “Web3 evangelist” (Forbes), and futurist. She is the Founder and CEO of Prestidge Group, Metaverse Board Advisor to INTERPOL and Metaverse Fashion Council, and Strategic Advisor for Imagin3 Studio.
Briar is the producer and host of HYPERSCALE, a weekly podcast featuring leading experts worldwide that takes you on an exhilarating journey into the future. Her reality-style docuseries takes viewers on a journey as she explores how the line between human and machine will blur.
In 2022, she produced the award-winning documentary '48 Hours in the Metaverse' which had Briar interviewing 21 metaverse experts across 33 virtual spaces, and was featured in leading publications such as Forbes and WIRED. Her NFT fashion label for avatars was showcased and launched at the world’s first Metaverse Fashion Week on Decentraland.
Briar was named one of the ‘Top 100 Most Influential’ people in the United Arab Emirates, and has been featured across Entrepreneur, Forbes, OSN, Emirates Women, Marie Claire, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, and WIRED, among others, in recognition of her work.