My theory (and believe me, I always have one) is that Facebook has started to see habits shifting, and they would know. They not only provide analytics to advertisers about how often we look at posts and what we click on, they use this same data to determine whether the app is successful. They eat their own analytics dog food.
That’s why I’m not exactly thrilled with the new direction of the company. One recent report nailed it squarely, suggesting this is all about “neglecting the real world” and looking at our phones even more than we do now. ( Could that be possible?)
Meta is a company run on algorithms. Think of algorithms as the engine that runs the addiction machine. The apps all shift and change constantly to suit our own taste, which keeps us hooked. Guess what? The entire corporation is also about to shift. The algorithm has told them it is time to reinvent itself, to create a metaverse that keeps us hooked (read: using their apps).
I want to believe it is a desire to make compelling products. I want to believe it’s because the metaverse will be wonderful.
But I know better. The more we click the more Meta attracts advertisers, and that is ultimately the goal. I’m sure the shareholders would agree.
Now we get to find out if it is possible to make a great product and generate revenue at the same time, as opposed to just making a new type of addiction machine.
3 replies on “Meta Verse: Neglect the Real, Cherish the Fake”
This desire to “generate” an income from the human desire for entertainment is degrading everything. Look at professional sports, to be specific, hockey. They are now destroying the experience with all the emphasis put on “betting”. The TV ads are trying to present betting as equal to watching the competition itself….or even MORE important.
Interestingly, they are turning people off with this. My younger adult son recently told me he’s totally turned off by all the betting ads that are on the sports channel. IMO, if he is turned off…then it’s a major fail.
You know what I was thinking?
People have already been groomed into cherishing the fake.
Look that the covid “pandemic”- and the so called vaccine that doesn’t stop transmission- despite the reality they believe in the fakery
Look at the Russia/Ukrainian conflict? Ghost of Kiev? Snake island? And so much other blatant fakery. It’s swallowed up greedily.
What we don’t know is killing us: The urgency of propaganda study under COVID
For those of us who study propaganda critically and seek to do this all-important work as public intellectuals, these last two years have been uniquely challenging, and even dangerous, forcing us into a painful double bind.
https://www.propagandainfocus.com/what-we-dont-know-is-killing-us-the-urgency-of-propaganda-study-under-covid/