  The metaverse has seen growing corporate and popular interest over the past
few years. While visions vary, the metaverse is generally seen as an extension
of the internet that may be developed through advances in a number of digital
technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, as well as new technical
infrastructure and standards. The metaverse constitutes an emerging social
imaginary, a way of both understanding and directing our shared existence. This
paper examines this emerging social imaginary through the phenomenological
concept of dwelling, or being at home in the world, as developed by Martin
Heidegger. To examine in depth one influential articulation of this social
imaginary, this paper focuses on the metaverse as envisioned by Mark
Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook). The paper presents a thematic
analysis of Zuckerberg's public statements regarding the metaverse to provide a
close reading of this particular vision. Then, through the lens of Heidegger's
philosophy of dwelling, this paper identifies numerous threats to dwelling
posed by the metaverse social imaginary. This paper explains these threats and
their prognoses, and it closes with some considerations for how the metaverse
could be designed to better facilitate human dwelling.
