Over the past few decades there has been a significant rise in the use of the word „metaverse‟, and this new
iteration of the internet as we know it can be expected to weave its way into our lives over the next few years at
an unprecedented scale. People have been speculating that metaverse would replace social media, one of the
most important resources available for today‟s generations, as the primary source of online interactions and
also change the way certain elements of society operate. With this there are several questions or doubts can be
posed and therefore is an inevitable comparison to be done between the two. In this paper I present the
perspectives through which the advantages and disadvantages of both platforms in an individual and grouped
context can be analyzed. I discuss these in tandem with the factors that made social media stand out to the point
that it became an integral part of most of our daily lives, and also how the metaverse is highly likely to remodel
several elements of society as we know it. In this discussion I have also made sure to consider the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic and the „online‟ scenarios that were created during the pandemic in these discussions as
it has without a doubt been an important stepping stone in social media‟s use and significance for the current
generations. To compare this to metaverse in a fair manner, the ever-growing capabilities of VR and the
artificial physical presence that they can create while working together is also a point of interest. This research
paper hopes to clear any doubts people might have regarding either of the two topics being discussed, and also
help people formulate their opinions and expectations based off valid, relevant and important arguments from a
variety of reputable resources which would help them to wisely choose between the two platforms for
themselves based on how they would fit their lives. In order to collect relevant and appropriate resources, after
some initial research I created codes for my research paper that would help shape the real content of my
research paper. I shortlisted resources that would contain important information and then create annotated
bibliographies from the same. From this, it became evident which sources were not appropriate to be used as it
became clear which aspect they lacked credibility in. If the information they were providing was vital, I tried to
find similar information on a different resource that would prove to be a credible resource after the annotated
bibliography. The main resources that were used were other research papers and articles but use of certain
statistical databases to retrieve figures regarding some trends discussed proved to be very helpful in justifying
the point stated.