Living Through Another VR Winter: What Should CSCW Do with Social VR After the Metaverse Hype?

Abstract

Social VR—immersive virtual environments where people interact in Virtual Reality—is entering an uncertain period. The metaverse has lost much of its force as an industry narrative that positioned Social VR as the future of work, learning, and online social life. Major platforms have struggled to sustain adoption, and AI has displaced XR as the dominant technological imaginary. Yet this possible VR winter does not make Social VR irrelevant to CSCW. It makes the field’s questions more urgent: what should CSCW do with Social VR after the metaverse hype? This SIG uses that question to open a collective discussion about the future of immersive social systems beyond platform hype. Moving away from speculation about what Social VR might become in technological terms, we invite participants to examine the goals, needs, and social conditions that could make immersive environments meaningful for collaboration, community, learning, organizational life, and other forms of collective experience. Adapting the Blue Sky workshop format, the session will use structured provocations and small-group agenda-setting to identify the concepts, methods, and commitments that should guide the next phase of Social VR research.