Is the pandemic responsible for recent interest in the metaverse?

VR/AR is a long trend slouching towards Bethlehem. It will always be getting closer, always be finding new applications, it might never change the world because details get in the way: the military thought it was a cool idea until they discovered that soldiers couldn't shoot their guns the normal way wearing a Hololens 2, you can't spend 8 hours a day in VR (with worthwhile VR experiences) the way you can spend 8 hours a day reading, watching TV, surfing the web, playing video games, etc.

Facebook has jumped in it because its core business has a half life a little longer than fresh fish, it can't buy TikTok, and it needs some new shiny to distract investors.

Whats the angle to your question, or put another way what causal pathway are you proposing?

Neil Stephenson popularized the idea in the 90s, and the concept has been around longer than that.

Personally I haven't seen any indication that anyone wants the metaverse except for Facebook and some crypto scammers. I don't see organic consumer demand, even latent demand, for it.

On the other hand, free or negative interest money + inflation means an impetus to spend as quickly as possible to build something that will make more money, and so you get projects like metaverse drawing funding. I think the pandemic response has at least accelerated the tech bubble (we already were well into the next cycle, following junk bonds, dotcom / enron, cdos-> now VC to get ponzi style returns), so arguable it helped, but I think conditions existed anyway

It certainly contributed to its development, in the same way that the pandemic accelerated acceptance of work-from-home and Zoom meetings. People need interaction, and the metaverse (whatever it is) is the latest iteration on that theme.

probably the people who are interested in keeping us all docile practicing escapism, consumption and hedonism in the first place - meta... perpetrated the "pandemic". Or they all mingle in the same pools and benefit from the same direction society has taken. The Klaus Schwab "You will own nothing and you will like it" seems eerily similar to what FB is proposing.

No.