If you are genuinely interested I am working on a list to counter the misinformation here. Here is what the media (and most r/technology users) get wrong:

• Many here are convinced the billions of $ are spent on a piece of VR software while in truth it is mostly research for novel hardware, AI and a platform to run other software ... To compare it to Apple: They are trying to build an entire new device category and ecosystem like the iPhone once did not just another mobile phone. Also note: This is a goal they want to reach not a product they are selling right now.

• Most headline and articles use the word metaverse wrong. It isn't a piece of software. You can compare it to a web standard like HTML5. Once it exists it is suppose to allow all companies and developers to build VR/AR software that can interact with each other. It comes from the book Snow Crash. It is a virtual world that is accessed through a headset. Imagine it as a Holodeck from Star Trek.

• A lot of users here got mislead thinking Meta's software has only 30 users. That article was about an entirely different attempt to build a "metaverse" by a crypto company.

• and the legs: A lot users here seem to think Facebook can't figure out how to render legs under their avatar. In truth they are working on a new technology that can track your entire body while wearing a VR headset. Similar to Kinect but without any additional hardware. And remember: This needs to work for all possible VR experience not just their own software. An walking animation wouldn't do the job if someone else wants to play football in VR.

• Are they just building another Second Life? There are some similarities but a lot of differences as well: Second Life is just piece software and controlled via mouse & keyboard. It was never very useful as a platform for other companies to create new products. If you build a football game in Second Life you create animations to interact with the ball and other players, you decide on the run speed of the characters, you map keys on your keyboard to specific actions to control your avatar and you see your own camera in third person. It is a lot of work. In a proper metaverse all need is to drop a ball and start playing with your friends. Everything that had to be manually done in Second Life is done automatically by the VR headset, body tracking and physics simulation.

Edit: still updating it

>Hence why your profession has a reputation of lacking soft skills.

It's still one of the highest paying industries in the entire world. This industry has the most valuable companies in the entire world. Most people are technology illiterate when most of the modern world runs on said technology. It's not their fault people like you are stupid.

> that non-IT professionals will want to learn more and have opinions.

Unfortunately that is rare on this subreddit. Most people that comment here have no intention to learn, because the majority of sources/statistics/studies that gets posted are disregarded and downvoted, with anecdotal opinions being the prevailing truth.