Whose Metaverse Is It, Anyway?
The line is a reference to a comedic variety show hosted by Drew Carey, Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, which was basically an homage to the absurd.
Enter Meta, the Company Formerly Known as Facebook, which some wags have referred to as Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to escape his many problems in the physical world. Not the least of which is his loss of a younger audience, and every advertiser knows that it’s best to get them when they’re young. Even Instagram can’t seem to hold on to those younger eyeballs. In Meta, kids can strap on their headsets (and CFKAF is betting that they will) and enter their own virtual worlds – with friends too, if they choose. Although it won’t be the Oculus headset, since FB is killing off the brand, which means, btw, as Techcrunch pointed out, that it took Zuck roughly 15 seconds to tell his first lie: “Our mission remains the same — it’s still about bringing people together. Our apps and our brands — they’re not changing either.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg painted a picture of the metaverse as a clean, well-lit virtual world, entered with virtual and augmented reality hardware at first and more advanced body sensors (or neural implants?) later on, in which people can play virtual games, attend virtual concerts, go shopping for virtual goods, collect virtual art, hang out with each other’s virtual avatars and attend virtual work meetings,” wrote The New York Times.
All while happily trapped in a Zuckerberg world. If you want to know where the puck is going, look to where it has been, to paraphrase a term from the ice hockey world, and let us not forget that censorship, surveillance and manipulation have always been paramount in Zuckerberg’s world. A leopard never changes his stripes (sic).
How far can you trust Facebook? While the company announced that it plans to shut down its facial recognition program, so when you post a photo, it may not be automatically tagged…but Facebook is not deleting any of the data, nor will it stop using its tools internally. Trust? You decide, Gracie.
As for the promotional video itself, despite his many public appearances, does Zuckerberg look at all comfortable? Or natural? Or even real, and we’re referring to Zuckerberg prior to his stepping into the virtual world. Where he’s with his friends and co-workers. We realize that it’s a promotional video, but do any of them look or sound as if they’re comfortable? Or believe that this is an amazing experience?
And note to self: if you believe that those virtual malls he’ll no doubt populate it with won’t eventually allow actual ecommerce, trust us, they will. In other words, he’ll be going after Amazon’s lunch.
Microsoft is also stepping into the metaverse, with a business focus, but considering how the company recently went “full on woke,” and that avatars are permitted in their virtual business environment, well, as new people are introduced at those meta meetings, precisely how long will introductions/ identifications take? Just asking…
While in his Seven Rules of the Metaverse, Tony Parisi said that there is only one Metaverse, Facebook’s and Microsoft’s approaches to it are worlds if not, ok, metaverses, apart. Dollars to donuts FB’s will at least in certain quarters no doubt quickly take on the dystopian pallor of FB itself, while Microsoft is using it as a productivity tool that will enable remote/hybrid work. Which makes sense given that, as the New York Post reported, Peloton shares tank as sales slow and people head back to gyms, and note to founders: we do not live in a tech vacuum. You need to pay attention to people’s shifting habits. People are abandoning their Pelotons. Think they’re going to gravitate to one of Zuck’s virtual gyms any time soon, if that’s in the works?
Can you say zoom fatigue?
Oh, wait! Meta is acquiring the maker of VR workout app ‘Supernatural’
The Triboro Bridge, the Tappan Zee Bridge, 6th Avenue, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. All these iconic NYC streets/structures’ names were changed and note to self: while 6th Avenue was renamed Ave of the Americas, the 6th Ave designation remains on the street sign. All the way down the avenue. It’ll always be 6th. Ditto the rest. Facebook can choose as many new names as it likes. Google became Alphabet, but everyone still calls it Google. Facebook’s problem is not the name association. It’s the face: specifically, Mark Zuckerberg’s. With all his many ‘missteps’ and lies, and his clandestinely sweeping all of the data available on us, whether we’re FB users or not, whether we’re actively on the platform or not, the trust is gone.
Very telling that Merriam Webster informally defines ‘meta’ as ‘concerning or providing information about members of its own category.’ If the name fits – and that is what we’ve come to expect from Zuckerberg and all his properties, after all.
Chapter and verse.
Onward and forward.