The Effect of Technostress on Cyberbullying in Metaverse Social Platforms

Abstract

Facebook and platforms such as Second Life3 and Roblox5 have contributed to the late interest in Metaverse. The metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual world inhabited by avatars of real people. After the prolonged pandemic people have got engaged more with the metaverse and used social metaverse platforms such as VRchat to communicate and interact. However, the lack of regulation that controls content creation on the Metaverse, and the democratized environment have presented a rich environment for people not only to escape stress but also to find an outlet for this stress by cyberbullying other avatars. In this conceptual paper, we are proposing a conceptual model based on the stress-strain model that explains the relationship between technostress elements and cyberbullying. This paper is also a call for policymakers and metaverse social platform owners to put clear policies to prevent cyberbullying on these platforms.