[New Wave] The Positive Influence of the Metaverse Event Commemorating Armed Forces Day

Last week, I attended a mentoring event hosted by the Ministry of National Defense to commemorate the ‘73rd Armed Forces Day.’ However, unlike before, there was no inconvenience of having to dress formally or physically travel to the venue to attend the event. I accessed the event conveniently in real-time through a link sent via text message on my smartphone. This event was planned as a non-face-to-face event using the recently trending metaverse (extended virtual world), allowing both the public and soldiers to participate together.

During the two-day event, I first thought it was well-suited to the Z-generation trend, where not only soldiers and their parents but anyone in the virtual space could participate, enjoy, and communicate, considering COVID-19. Even for older generations like myself, who are unfamiliar with the term metaverse and actual participation, it was easy to get accustomed to selecting one’s avatar, freely customizing it using accessories, and performing 3D movements within a short time. It was a very innovative and interesting event, providing various motion emoticon devices to indirectly enjoy the event in the virtual space.

The event content was also beneficial. There were lectures from speakers delivering warm messages to soldiers currently serving, close-to-military-life advice, and self-motivating encouragement for life after service. In addition, there were real-time interviews with former unit members who appeared on recently concluded military-related entertainment programs, diverse content such as the role our military has played in history, my military service story, and stories of innovators I have met, as well as participatory events, all well planned and worthy of high praise from many attendees.

The metaverse, a virtual reality platform, is a compound word of ‘Meta,’ meaning virtual and transcendence, and ‘Universe,’ meaning space or a vast world. It can be described as a three-dimensional space that expands reality into the digital world through virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), social networking services (SNS), and enables economic, social, and cultural activities.

In the Ministry of National Defense mentoring event using the metaverse, it was easy to intuitively feel the atmosphere of the site, and there was a clear difference from other non-face-to-face communication methods limited to live broadcasting event scenes through specific social media channels in terms of ease of interaction between the host and attendees. Above all, the outstanding point was that to increase the participation of soldiers, the main protagonists of the Armed Forces Day event, it was conducted so that they could directly participate in the event using their smartphones during their phone usage time after work.

Recently, the public sector seems to be striving to develop policies for the younger generation and communicate effectively with them. There are also voices of concern that the country’s future is somewhat bleak due to declining birth rates, and overall crisis awareness in our society is increasing. Therefore, various communication plans and attempts that match the Z-generation’s perspective, who must act as a bridge between the current and future generations, and emphasize active interaction due to autonomy, are increasingly required.

However, such communication channels should not remain mere one-time events or events that simply ride the wave of media technology development trends. It is necessary to prioritize the target audience for communication in each public sector and align the level of interest issues with the policies they want to communicate to ensure sustainable communication. It is difficult to predict how the metaverse media platform will evolve, but at this point, it is hoped that it will exert a positive influence by resolving conflicts caused by communication breakdowns among social members and providing vitality to our society, which has been somewhat stagnant due to COVID-19.