Facebook Inc. is changing its name to “Meta.” Since most of us grew up using Facebook and considering how even my parents have a Facebook page, it suffices to say that Facebook is a household name.
Facebook Inc. is the parent company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. Only the name of the parent company is changing. The name of these apps will remain the same.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding decision on October 28, 2021. Mark Zuckerberg says, “The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the “metaverse” and it will touch every product we build.”
What is the Metaverse?
Metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. Facebook wants to be omnipresent in every user’s life by building “Metaverse” an online world where people game, work and communicate in a virtual environment by using VR headsets.
Zuckerberg says that he’s ready to bring us into a future that we’ve only seen in sci-fi films up until now. This means you can travel to your dream destination, meet your loved ones in any desired place, play sports, or any game with them through interactive augmented reality.
Metaverse is also meant for online shopping where you can try out the outfits or products on the virtual world first and then order them online. A user can go to virtual concerts, create and view virtual artworks.
Achieving this future roadmap will take years to complete. Zuckerberg was keen to stress it was a long-term product.
Why is Facebook changing it’s name to Meta?
Although Facebook renames itself as Meta, the problems faced by Facebook are still the same. Over the years, Facebook is accused of various misconducts. Time and again, Facebook proves to be inefficient in protecting users’ privacy and information.
Recently, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook data scientist leaked a trove of internal documents to international media. These documents are called “Facebook Papers.” According to the papers, the company was indirectly responsible for the riot of Jan 6 by not stopping users spread false and hateful content.
India has a total of 340 million Facebook users. In India, Facebook is allowing anti-Muslim propaganda and hate speech. There are lots of other secrets leaked out in the Facebook Papers too.
Renaming the name of the company won’t change the deeds done until now.
What are the challenges of Metaverse?
Meta still needs many technological advancements to reach a new age of technology where people can entertain themselves, play games, talk with loved ones virtually, and study in an immersive virtual environment. There are other challenges that Meta needs to resolve such as:
1. Physical Space Challenge
If you’ve watched Player One, you’ll notice that the players have a walking pod and a decent physical space. Those players walk on the walking pod to move on the game.
If Meta plans on bringing an immersive virtual world, they will require a walking pod. They need a separate physical space, where we can move freely without worrying about breaking something.
Such equipment requires a separate physical space in your home and, the design needs to be compact enough for users. Unless, they go with the sensor option, in which we put a sensor on our legs and jog on-spot to run.
2. Privacy and safety of users
Facebook has time and again proved to be ineffective in protecting the data of its users. Who’s to say that such a mistake won’t ever happen again.
Especially running a user-friendly virtual world would require more private information and data of the user to make our virtual space engaging. Facebook still hasn’t fixed the problems in its current platform, and who is to say such a problem won’t exist in the metaverse.
3. Health of the users
When it comes to games and the immersive world, people tend to forget about keeping their health in check. For instance, there are cases of gamers dying due to long hours of playing games.
VR may also cause eye problems along with nausea and headache. Some people forget to look after their physical needs while getting immersed in gaming. Meta needs to remind people to take a break and gently turn off the virtual world if they are online for an extended period.
4. Price Tag
Virtual reality needs two components: VR glasses and a computer that has enough processing power to stream VR content in terms of hardware. Since VR is a new concept for the general people, the starting price will be higher.
For instance, when Oculus got released in 2016, the starting price was $599. Today it costs less than $400.
The software is also expensive during the initial phases as the companies have to hire developers with specialized knowledge and expertise to create VR products.
Although the concept of the virtual world is exciting, Meta should maintain the price of the VR set to bring everybody on the bandwagon.
5. Virtual law and ethics
A virtual world should have its law and ethics. In a virtual world, people’s identity can be hidden with avatars so they might try to do wrong things.
For instance, When an individual’s avatar gets molested in the virtual world or verbally abused, it leaves a mental stigma on the user. Imagine people are forming a group to spread hate and propaganda against a certain minority of the population.
On top of that, when people look for social stimulation from virtual reality, they become desensitized to the real world. Imagine a whole generation of the population who don’t have the skills to interact with each other.
If Meta wants to build a Utopian society, they must create ethical virtual laws to prevent everyone’s mental and physical well-being.
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