Imagining identity in Meta’s metaverse: a genealogy of imagined future realms in computer culture

Abstract

Abstract Woven into the fabric of Meta’s Metaverse, and core to its selling point, is a social imaginary of a new realm within our grasp, one in which individuals are imagined to possess greater control over their positionings and social markings. This liberational promise underlying Meta’s metaverse is inherited from past visions of the future within the history of American computer culture. Employing a genealogical approach, we investigate some advertisements for imagined new realms at various points in that history—The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC), an ad campaign for cyberspace, and Meta’s “Are We There Yet”—focusing on how identity is (re)constructed in each.