Keywords

1 Introduction and Background of Research

In our modern, interconnected digital world [1, 2], the experiences of young people differ significantly from those of previous generations. Many engage in networks that constantly expose them to individuals from diverse backgrounds, encompassing different ethnicities, cultures, communities, and tribes [2]. These encounters offer genuine encounters with various cultural, religious, and ethical value systems, which present an integrated and often persuasive set of expectations, enticing them to adopt these perspectives. However, this exposure to pluralistic attributes can lead to conflicting expectations and moral dilemmas. Particularly for those experiencing uncertainties or becoming aware of social inequalities, navigating these complexities can be challenging. Or, for those who, under the cloak of these inequalities believe themselves superior, capable of perpetuating domineering and oppressive attitudes, true oligarchies in a world that claims to be increasingly democratic.

The transition to Web 2.0 brought about a shift from static websites to dynamic platforms that allowed users to actively contribute, share, and collaborate. User-generated content became a driving force in shaping cyberspace. The widespread adoption of smartphones and mobile devices further extended the reach of cyberspace, enabling people to connect and interact online anytime and anywhere [3]. The integration of IoT devices, such as smart home appliances and wearable gadgets, expanded the scope of cyberspace beyond traditional computers and mobile devices. And, advancements in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies added new dimensions to cyberspace, offering immersive and interactive experiences, coined as metaverse. Metaverse is a concept that envisions a fully immersive, interconnected digital universe where people can interact with each other and digital objects in a three-dimensional virtual environment [4, 5]. In the metaverse, users can experience a persistent, interconnected, and synchronous digital space that transcends individual platforms and applications [6]. As technology continues to advance, cyberspace will undoubtedly evolve further, shaping the way we interact with and perceive the digital realm.

The metaverse concept has gained significant attention in recent years as advancements in VR, AR, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technologies have brought the vision of a shared digital universe closer to reality. Major technology companies and gaming platforms have expressed their interest in building and shaping the metaverse, aiming to create the next generation of digital experiences that go beyond the limitations of traditional websites and apps. The metaverse also offers the opportunity to bridge the gap between physical and virtual spaces, creating blended environments that harmonize community and society [3, 4]. Through these blended spaces, informal and formal learning environments can be designed to support the development of citizenship identities better. Overall, the metaverse provides a unique and innovative platform for young people to explore and engage with citizenship in a global and interconnected world [6].

While the idea of the metaverse holds immense potential for innovation and new possibilities, there are also challenges related to privacy, security, digital rights, and the equitable distribution of resources within such a vast virtual space [7]. As technology continues to progress, the metaverse is expected to evolve, and its impact on society and human interactions will likely continue to be a subject of discussion and exploration.

Citizenship in the metaverse can occur using immersive virtual environments that allow young people to explore and develop their understanding of citizenship [8]. These virtual worlds provide a platform for young people to engage with political issues, develop their personal identities, and navigate the complexities of cultural and religious values [8]. By using avatars and real-time interactions, young people can actively participate in discussions and decision-making processes related to citizenship [9].

There is a plethora of concerns regarding citizenship in the metaverse, that rise from the global scale digital networks and global democratization occurred, which allowed individuals to connect and exchange ideas, but also unveiled the need to harmonize community, family, and private blended places with society and public blended spaces [8].

The blending of physical and virtual spaces in the metaverse can impact the sense of community and isolation experienced by individuals [10]. Choi, Glassman, and Cristol [11] recognize that the cyber world has a substantial impact on citizens’ civic engagement. Furthermore, citizenship behavior within virtual communities has been recognized as essential for sustainable success, and factors such as social exchange theory and product trial influence can shape individuals’ engagement in citizenship behavior [12]. For this empowerment to occur, citizens need to master the same concepts of citizenship [11].

In this context, while reaffirming the importance of increasingly investing in cybercitizenship education, we also recognize the role that the metaverse can play in developing this educational process. However, we do not fail to question and discuss how pernicious this role can be.

2 Methodological Considerations

This article combines two methodological approaches: grounded theory and scientographic analysis. Grounded theory emphasizes the inductive development of theories grounded in empirical data, enabling the discovery of patterns, categories, and relationships that emerge organically from the data itself. Scientographic analysis, on the other hand, entails a systematic examination of existing scientific literature to establish a comprehensive understanding of the topic under investigation. The purpose of combining these methodologies was to build upon existing knowledge and find novel insights that help reflect on including the metaverse in the education for sustainable global citizenship, alerting to possible ethical dangers that may arise from it.

3 Metaverse and Education: Ethical Dilemmas and Challenges

The creation of fictional/parallel realities as archetypes of an ideal society context, where citizens work together for the common good and engage in valuable and productive activities, is no longer a fictional narrative of the sixteenth century, as described by Thomas More in his book Utopia (1516) but seems to become a real possibility of being and educating the global citizen of the twenty-first century.

According to Choi and Parks [13, p. 1] “[…] cyber-world is the primary communication and play space for teenagers, where individual identity is expressed, and values are formed. To them, the cyber world is not regarded as a secondary space but a continuum of life and an essential social space for forming relationships”. In this context, it is urgent to educate to know how to navigate the cyber world, favoring digital literacy [14], understood both from the point of view of digital access, the development of technical skills, as well as the development of ethical and emotional skills, which enhance knowledge of new socio-cultural realities, openness, and dialogue with them, under the domain of ethical rationality, of social justice.

Therefore, the metaverse is an important space for promoting education for global and digital citizenship. The 3D and interactive dimension of the metaverse favors numerous possibilities for acquiring cultural knowledge [15]. For example, they allow immersion in the realities of pre-classical and classical civilizations, allowing us to go through the realities of these historical periods, experiencing their problems, and their emotions, developing, in fact, a historical awareness that promotes knowledge and hermeneutics of the past in understanding the present and building a better future.

The metaverse also makes it possible to create museums, which can host exhibitions on particular themes and provide visitors with experiences [16], such as the terrible holocaust, the result of the supremacy of a people, the expressed social intolerance, the actual stage of the loss of human dignity and the sense of identity and human morality, so well described by Primo Levi [17], in the work If this is a Man (1947).

The avatars created in the metaverse can be real human “monsters”, as they allow the creation of alter egos, which end up not identifying with what the person is, but with what is expected in both the real and virtual worlds. The metaverse can change the human mind, bringing new structures of life and interactions [], and these changes can be dangerous [18, 19].

Indeed, the use of metaverse in digital citizenship education evokes an ethical paradox. On the one hand, the metaverse fosters knowledge that enables the development of ethical and reflective awareness and empowers individuals with active citizenship behavior by designing informal and formal learning environments that blend physical and virtual locations. However, there are uncertainties and challenges in implementing digital citizenship, such as political, technological, and psychological factors [12]. One concern is the global inequality generated by cloud communities due to the lack of internet access, although internet access has significantly improved in many countries [20]. Another concern is the potential tyranny of the majority in the cloud, which requires the constitutional design of voting mechanisms [4, 20]. These concerns highlight the need for further reflection and discussion on the relationship between new technologies and the future of citizenship. And, consequently, a review about the use or not the metaverse in cybercitizenship education.

Ignoring the metaverse promotes an empty and useless educational process insofar as it is decontextualized from reality. The metaverse is a reality of the twenty-first century, resulting from today’s technological evolution. In contemporary times, technology no longer has the function of dominating nature and being at the service of Man but has become a process of domination of Man himself [21, 22]. Man in technological society has become “a disheveled Promoteu to whom science has never attributed known powers and economics gives the indefatigable impetus” [21, p. 13].

The use of the metaverse in education for digital citizenship is fundamental for the development of ethics of responsibility in the promotion of active citizenship, not only because, as we have already mentioned, it allows the hermeneutics of other spatial–temporal contexts, favoring the construction of an axiological and critical reflection; but also because it is important to use the metaverse to warn of its dangers, developing a digital awareness, in which conditions are created for the development of a culture and an ethical code that establishes the limits and ensures the physical, psychological and emotional well-being of its users, safeguarding culture of peace.

4 Digital and Metaverse Ecosystems from a Scientographic Analysis

To comprehend the trends in research methodology and subject matter over the past 23 years, this investigation employed bibliometric techniques to analyze scholarly publications spanning from 2000 to 2023. This analysis focused on the realm of citizenship, digital literacy, and education within digital and metaverse ecosystems, with methodologies encompassing citation analysis, co-citation analysis, and content analysis supported by the AI tool Dimension.

Research on this trilogy in digital and metaverse ecosystem has grown significantly over the last decade (see Fig. 1), as noted in the graph made with Dimension tool.

Fig. 1
A line graph of the number of articles published versus years. The line begins at (2000, 0), gradually increases and rises to (2007, 12.000), immediately drops to (2008, 2000), then ascends and peaks at (2021, 14950), and finally drops to (2023, 6000). Values are estimated.

Number of articles published

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This evolutionary path shows a growing interest in the subject. It lets us compare it with the evolution of the web since it has been a remarkable journey of technological advancement and societal transformation. Beginning as a static repository of text and images in the early 1990s, the web quickly evolved into a dynamic platform with interactive elements, giving rise to the era of Web 2.0 (2000–2010), characterized by user-generated content and social networking. During this period, the interconnection between these three components gains interest in research with a clear pique between 2007, reflecting the expansion of social media networks such as Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2006) [23]. Subsequently, the proliferation of mobile devices and the advent of responsive design led to a more accessible and mobile-friendly Web 3.0 (2010–2020). This phase saw the emergence of data-driven and personalized experiences and the integration of emerging technologies like AI and virtual reality, but also promoted the growth of cyberbullying, and fake news, among other less positive social behaviors. Alongside web evolution, the metaverse evolved somewhat boosted by gamers, reshaping how individuals interact, socialize, and engage with digital content.

When examining the fields of analysis, it can be noted that 15.72% of the articles are related to education and 14.8% to human society (see Fig. 2).

Taking as seed article the Erdem, Oruç [3] work that integrates these two main fields, it’s possible to observe that digital citizenship has coined many different works along the analysis period, while digital literacy shows less relevance, but more recent works. In the middle of the diagram, it’s possible to observe that the articles covered perspectives based on the technology adopted, the user age-cohort, or the educational level (see Fig. 3).

The social dimension and its implications in terms of individual behavior, since this trilogy should give users particular skills to navigate, comprehend, and responsibly contribute to the interconnected and immersive digital landscape, ensuring informed participation, fostering critical thinking, and cultivating a sense of ethical responsibility in this evolving digital realm.

5 Final Considerations

As the web continues to evolve, the ongoing development of Web 4.0 envisions a highly interconnected and intelligent online ecosystem, interweaving the physical and digital realms through the Internet of Things, decentralized technologies, and seamless user experiences, ultimately reshaping how we interact, communicate, and conduct business in an increasingly interconnected world [3]. Promoting digital literacy, education, and citizenship within the metaverse calls for a multifaceted and coordinated effort across various domains [6], considering the plethora of founded domains (see, Fig. 2). At the core of this endeavor lies developing a comprehensive curriculum that seamlessly integrates digital literacy, metaverse education, and responsible digital citizenship into formal education systems, spanning from primary education to higher academia. To complement this, skill development programs, workshops, and online courses should be established, offering individuals practical guidance on navigating the complexities of the metaverse, discerning credible information from misinformation, and effectively utilizing tools and platforms. These educational initiatives can be reinforced by public awareness campaigns that underscore the pivotal role of digital literacy and conscientious behavior in the metaverse, shedding light on potential consequences arising from the spread of misinformation or cyberbullying. As the metaverse evolves, a commitment to continuous learning is paramount. This study intends to cover only some of it, but to interconnect some concepts and be a reflection exercise to foster future education programs and initiatives (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2
A horizontal bar graph. 39 education has the longest bar of 20,200 approximately, followed by 44 human society at 19,543, and 47 language, communication, and other at 15.828. 49 mathematical science has the lowest bar at 218.

Article distribution by different disciplines made in dimension tool

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Fig. 3
A circular path diagram illustrates fields of research co-occurrence networks focusing on digital citizenship and digital literacy or education. The topics exhibit interconnected aspects forming intertwined networks. Key contributors include Yon 2022, Shi 2022, Walters 2018, Lauricella 2020, Martens 2015, Potter 2017, Mihailidis 2018, Chen 2023, Choi 2016, Choi 2018, and so on.

Fields of research co-occurrence network

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