Into the Metaverse
Without taking a moment to inspect its details thoroughly, it may seem like a waste of time to care about Facebook’s rebranding to Meta Platforms, Inc in late October. But, after taking a closer look, it is apparent that this means more than what we see at first glance for the future of the internet.
The goal of this change is to accomplish something straight from a Sci-fi novel: building a complete metaverse—a whole different world in virtual reality (VR). Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerburg, released an official statement on the issue October 28th. In this ‘founder’s letter,’ he described the fundamental change in the company’s goals.
“The metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies,” Zuckerburg explained, regarding Meta’s role in this new frontier for the internet. “Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and our identity in what we are building towards.”
This new direction has the potential to change the way the world works, and this generation could possibly witness that change.
Though Gabe Holt, 10 was not very convinced by Meta’s efforts.
“I think they’re being over ambitious,” Gabe said. “They’re trying to achieve something so obviously inspired by science fiction, and I think it’s still too early for humanity to be that reliant on technology.” Gabe also had some thoughts on ulterior motives for such a massive change.
“Facebook has somewhat of a bad wrap due to things like data-mining and a decent number of scandals. This could be another reason for the change,” he said.
As Facebook—now Meta—continues to nurture this new set of goals, it is impossible to determine how many possibilities they present. It is safe to say, though, that we’ll be seeing lots of change in the Facebook interface, and potentially in the rest of the technological world.