The Fall of Reality Privilege

Why the metaverse increases equality

April 03, 2022

Podcast plug: Political scientist Justin Murphy quit his professorship to write on the internet. He writes his newsletter Other Life to 5,000+ and tweets spicy opinions to 30,000+ on Twitter. Enjoy our conversation on Spotify and Apple.

I recently learned about the idea of Reality Privilege, a concept brought to the zeitgeist by investor Marc Andreessen.

He explains it well here,

A small percent of people live in a real-world environment that is rich, even overflowing, with glorious substance, beautiful settings, plentiful stimulation, and many fascinating people to talk to, and to work with, and to date.

Everyone else, the vast majority of humanity, lacks Reality Privilege -- their online world is, or will be, immeasurably richer and more fulfilling than most of the physical and social environment around them in the quote-unquote real world.

In a 2021 interview, Andreessen mentions how much of the world lacks reality privilege. For many people, their online life is better - and offers more opportunities - than their IRL reality.

This belief immediately strikes me as wrong, but Andreessen says specifically that wealthy US east and west coasters should beware of immediately dismissing the idea.

We don’t know how good we have it.

Many people around the globe lack opportunities IRL for potential friendships, romantic partners, and co-founders.

Think about life in the rural part of a developing country - or a war-torn one.

Consider life in farm-country Nebraska versus NYC. What opportunities will there be for a potential startup founder or an ambitious young writer?

Shit, even the difference between living in New Jersey and NYC is huge.

This is why the metaverse matters.

For those of us who lack the reality privilege of a major city, the internet is often the best way to make friends, make money, and find romance.

If you are active in an online community like Twitter, you get access to friends, co-founders, jobs, and even romantic partners.

It’s not the same as living in Miami or NYC, but it’s still amazing.

While all the headlines are about monkey jpegs, the metaverse offers far more: it makes reality privilege less prominent.

But, in order to get all the good things that come from spending time online, you need a different type of privilege: Metaverse Privilege.

Metaverse Privilege is:

The privilege to be online a lot
The privilege of having a solid social/work life online

Everyone with an internet connection should have metaverse privilege, but that’s not the case. Check out the chart below.

In the bottom left quadrant, we have a Nebraska plumber: he has low metaverse privilege as he’s unclogging toilets all day and low reality privilege as he’s in nowhere, USA.

In the top left quadrant, we have a Kentucky remote tech worker: he has high metaverse privilege as he can sit in his pajamas on Twitter all day, but low reality privilege as he’s in the middle of nowhere.

In the bottom right quadrant, we have an NYC electrician: he has low metaverse privilege as he’s fixing lightbulbs all day, but high reality privilege as he lives in NYC.

In the top right quadrant, we have a NYC hybrid tech worker: he has high metaverse privilege as he can be surfing through NFTs all day and high reality privilege as he lives in NYC and goes into the office 1-2x per week.

The goal is obviously the top right quadrant.

Unlike other privileges the woke media likes to talk about, metaverse privilege is one you can obtain by choosing which games you’re going to play.