Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that Facebook’s name change to Meta is due in part to his devotion to reading the Greco-Latin classics. Something common in powerful men with an ambitious spirit. Alexander the Great always slept with his copy of Homer’s ‘Iliad’. Napoleon, for his part, learned by reading about history, especially the war chronicles written by Julius Caesar, that he himself might be capable of reaching the same heights as the men we place at the heights of our annals. Many politicians have also resorted to the ‘Meditations’ of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Zuckerberg is not a Roman emperor, nor is he a monarch. He is not even a politician; but he wields more power than most of them. Big tech is the great internet empires, and yours is on the defensive against several fronts. He knows that Rome’s decline began when borders were strengthened rather than expanded. And his empire has already reached the whole world. Little else can be conquered. Facebook, through all its applications, reaches more than 3,000 million people. And if it was not enough, young people see Facebook as a parenting app. They prefer TikTok.
If we add to this cocktail how tainted the Facebook brand is from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the publication of the ‘Facebook Paper’ through the assault on the Capitol, we can better understand why the ‘metaverse’ is so important for Zuckerberg and the change of the company’s name to Meta.
The ‘metaverse’ is more than just a virtual world
The ‘metaverse’ is not just another application or platform. It is an ambitious, arduous and long journey through which the founder wants to transform the entire company so that his ambitions are not hampered by third parties. It intends to adopt new avenues of income beyond increasing the efficiency of the algorithm to economically squeeze its users and advertisers with which to increase the splendor of its empire.
It will be, so to speak, an Internet within the Internet. And on that Internet, which is accessed through virtual reality glasses or augmented reality, the limits will no longer be set by rival companies like Apple and Google with their phones. It is a way of getting inside the Internet instead of just observing it.
“The quality that defines the metaverse will be the feeling of presence, as if you were right there with another person or in another place. Feeling really present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we focus on building it “, says Meta in his release.
The ‘metaverse’, in addition to being based on face-to-face value, is designed to extend over three fundamental pillars: entertainment, socialization and work. There, Zuckerberg says, creators will enjoy new opportunities selling virtual clothing, artwork or even cosmetic changes to avatars – 3D representations of users within the virtual world.
This is the key. It conceives a virtual empire where all economic transaction and social interaction occurs through its platform. And for each one of them you will obviously expect to make a profit. No longer will you just “collect taxes” through ads in your app; You will be able to do it through any sale, advertisement and activity carried out in your ‘metaverse’.
That is why their ambitious, daring and risky endeavor is understandable. Not only would it mean safeguarding the future of the company, but it would achieve, again, as it did with its social network Facebook, mold it your craving. A future that does not get out of hand.
The eccentricities of the leader
But for now to the consumer and the press this ‘metaverse’ still sounds like Chinese. They seem like the eccentricities of someone who announces applications, uses and potential markets ten years from now. What little virtual reality ‘software’ it currently offers is reserved for a very specific demographic for which it is rarely useful. They are all demonstrations with many things to polish for a future that, in reality, perhaps only the companies themselves want. Who likes to have work meetings like having to watch your boss gesture with a 3D doll?
Epic Games or Roblox have already flirted with the idea that the real and the virtual converge in a parallel universe. And quite successfully. But outside of video games it will be more difficult to sell the consumer the advantages of being always connected, seeing message alerts and receiving notifications from advertisers constantly within their field of vision.
Facebook employees note that the company’s leadership is increasingly estranged from its employees, and that Zuckerberg surrounds himself with executives who applaud his decisions, rather than contradict them when necessary.
Zuckerberg is betting the future of the company on an idea, a promise, that we do not know when will it become a real product. For many a delusion, an eccentricity. An attempt to re-mark the course of the Internet. According to his vision, it will be the culmination of his mission to “connect the world.” But, if locked in an application within a third-party platform, the negative impact of Facebook has been so great in terms of political polarization and proliferation of anti-vaccine discourses. What will happen inside your ‘metaverse’? Because now we read disinformation and hate speech on mobile phones, but there they can point at us and yell at us. Will there be ‘metapolice’ as well or just ‘metanus’ and ‘metaropa’?