Facebook, the company, is no more — even though the social media platform called Facebook remains available. The tech giant has renamed itself Meta Platforms, Inc., although the company still uses the “FB” stock ticker. What’s with the change? Going forward, the company plans to focus more on virtual reality and the so-called Metaverse.
Traditionally, Facebook was a social media company, and its biggest products and ambitions centered around social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. However, the company plans to focus more on the “metaverse” in the future. Indeed, in an interview with Casey Newton of The Verge, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company was shifting its focus from Facebook to the entire “metaverse.”
So what is the metaverse anyway? First coined in the 1992 novel Snow Crash, the metaverse refers to a virtual world where people can live, work and play. Zuckerberg, among others, believes that the metaverse is the next stage of the Internet.
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Rather than driving to work, you might connect to the metaverse, perhaps using VR goggles and a haptic feedback vest to visit a virtual office instead. With VR goggles and haptic feedback, you’re not simply viewing a meeting through a screen and camera. Instead, you could be “embodied” into a digital environment, allowing for more life-like interactions.
If the metaverse really is the next stage of the internet, the decision to transition from social media could pay off. Facebook already owns Oculus, one of the biggest virtual reality brands, and Zuckerberg intends to spend billions more in his efforts to revolutionize the web.
Still, while Meta aims to be a major player, the company doesn’t expect or intend to develop the metaverse entirely on its own. For me, I get tired of Facebook now. So I can’t imagine that I’ll like the version of “metaverse” they are aiming for either. I think I would rather just stick with “real” life.