The development of technology has led to further inroads into artificial technology use in social media. The culmination of this is depicted in platforms such as Meta. OASIS is demonstrated in Ready Player One by Earnest Clive be a platform where individuals can play video games, watch television shows, and access countless learning materials. OASIS is a useful and productive escape from the harsh world that the characters in Ready Player One live in, while the current social media platform that could be compared to OASIS, Meta, is more of a harmful distraction for individuals in the current world because while OASIS offers learning Meta is destructive to socialization and other activities.
OASIS is useful because it offers its users an entire catalog of books, learning resources, and materials. For Wade, the main character in the book, a child living in abject poverty in a house full of individuals, OASIS gave him books and reading materials that he would not have been able to access otherwise (Cline 31). Through OASIS, he can watch shows like Family Ties and imagine himself escaping to the reality of a well-lit home and an understanding family. For these reasons, OASIS is a net positive for the lives of individuals in Ready Player One.
Meta is a dangerous distraction for all the users as the products it has to give the users are in no way productive to their development and overall well-being. Afif and Nasvian argue that the company may be generating a potentially dangerous product which would bar physical association and socialization between people as opposed to promoting it (5). The dangers posed by the new Meta by Facebook has been cited in the literature as having data privacy concerns. Afif and Nasvian state that the data leakage of the 500 million users is likely to increase with the use of Meta (10).
In conclusion, OASIS offers Wade an opportunity to learn new things and functions as his form of escape from his harsh reality while Facebook’s Meta is inhibitive to socialization and physical association among people. OASIS offers Wade an opportunity to read books about the world that he would not have otherwise had a chance to read that explain the world. Meta on the other hand poses data privacy concerns to the users about the sale of their data to corporations.
Works Cited
Afif, Rayan, and Moch Fuad Nasvian. “Public Opinion on Facebook Rebrand to Meta: A Twitter Big Data Analysis on the First 24 Hours After Meta Launched.” JURNAL IPTEKKOM (Jurnal Ilmu Pengetahuan & Teknologi Informasi), vol. 24, no.1, 2022, pp. 1-19.
Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. Ballantine Books, 2011.