The word metaverse did not originate in a corporate rebrand, a product roadmap, or a quarterly earnings call. It entered our cultural vocabulary in 1992, in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, as a speculative description of the future of virtual worlds. More than three decades later, we find ourselves in a deeply distorted moment: large segments of the media continue to conflate Meta’s internal product struggles (most visibly Horizon Worlds) with the success or failure of the metaverse itself. Thi...

Meta is Not the Metaverse: An Open Letter to the Tech Press

Previously published on AI Insider January 29, 2026. Vantage is AR Insider’s editorial contributor program. It enlists spatial computing executives and innovators for first-hand strategic insights.