Facebook Being Renamed And Rebranded; Get Your Virtual Stamp Collections Now

Today Facebook announced it is changing its name to 'Meta' and is taking a deep dive into the 'metaverse' paradigm. Zuckerberg, after starting Facebook as an app which rated female college co-eds hotness; is betting the next level of cashing in on human weakness is to sell people their own virtual fantasy world.

So instead of simply 'friending' your stamp collecting buddies you will instead take your online personality and go to a virtual stamp club meeting.

Using your Oculus virtual reality computer and headset (FB owns Oculus ), you'll leave behind worldly stresses and relocate to greener pastures. Anything can be had in the metaverse, items such as stamps, shoes and lawn mowers can be manufactured at no cost and exchanged for nothing, save the small transaction fees charged by your metaverse provider.

The metaverse is a place where you will be able to interface with entertainment, music, social connections, stamp catalogs, and coffee makers.

Think of the metaverse as a virtual replacement for the old company towns. You work for them and you use their currency to buy everything from them. You can have others over to your multi-million dollar mansion while you are sitting in your house trailer.

But hey, it will be "free".
Don

Hi Don,

Fascinating stuff that I wish no part of. Call me old fashioned...

All part of the coming trans-humanism clap-trap nonsense so that the elites can lord over the rest of us and "live" forever. The construction of an alternate universe meshed with the real one, if you will.

There are some very disturbing things coming down the pike. I am by nature not a conspiracy theorist, but stuff like this should terrify people, IMHO.

It was my honest intention not to make this posting "political," and I hope no one takes it that way. We are (were) human beings with one vote in the business of things - but I fear that is about to change...

John

Apparently, you are not a fan.

I am hoping that folks will consider and take away a better understanding of how Big Tech works and earns billions. When they have a profile on you, they can then populate your virtual house with product placements. If they know you are a Coke-Cola drinker, when I visit you metahouse we will see Coke cans sitting around. Now multiply this times billions of users and meta locations. They will offer this 'free' (just like folks here call FaceBook 'free' now) and will prey upon human shortcomings to make the metaverse a place people want to spend time in. I expect sex, trending stuff, music, movies, travel to far away places, etc. will all be offered...anything that will increase and attract participation. More participation = more billions for FB/Meta. All while being 'free'.

The 'real life' equivalent is this. Imagine someone shadows you all day and night long, watching what you eat, what you drink, what you do as a hobby, your family situation, what you drive, where you go. They only observe and record this data on you. Now who owns that data? They did the work to gather and record it, they did not interfere with you or get in your way, they simply observed you and recorded the information at their cost.

Having a virtual world gives them more data on you. But hey, it is 'free'.

Some folks argue that this is their data while other argue that those who gather it owns it. <shrugs>
Don

The WSJ reported that Zuckenberg would spend up to 18 billion this year and at least 10 billion next year to create the "metaverse ". This would be a long term project the article said as analysts stated that some of the " fundamental building blocks of the metaverse don't exist yet and will take time to build". . "we see the full vision of the metaverse decades away" Jefferies Analysts. They further stated that they are bullish on the project. Facebook total company expenses could reach 97 billion next year., as it spends on people and infrastructure.
The race is on as gaming companies and other tech giants are racing to create their own "metaverse". Everything above should be in quotes from the WSJ, 10/27. The future looks very different.
Cheers

The article did state that it is geared to younger persons who spent 80 billion on virtual goods (no time frame stated).
Edit to add target marget

I already renamed FB but I cannot use that name here.

IMO, presently in the USA it is impossible not to be targeted…unless you are a Ted Kaczyinski-style hermit.

The APS has promoted FB a lot in recent years, invested in a new website (twice) and spent a fortune on the Match Factory physical building and property. But now they are going to need a virtual headquarters and virtual APRL! Now is the time to start planning and bringing human resources who can pull this off for them.

I do not think that the 'metaverse' is just for young people, the FB demographic has seen young people leaving Fb over the last 5 years. Over 70% of current FB users are >26, around 50% are over 35. Young people are using other platforms like Twitter and Snapchat and this trend is continuing.

I have been a part of a NIH funded research team for the last 10 year which uses VR to by-pass short term memory impairments in older adults. The results have been outstanding and have proven that it is possible to teach cognitively impaired adults new behaviors like fall prevention. VR is powerful and Zuckerberg is not transitioning FB on a lark. Mark (pun intended) my words, this is going to become a consumer black hole which sucks everything into it.

FB and Google already own a large majority of our personal data (62% of the profiles). This move by FB will be matched by Google. I assume that they will basically build the 'Library Of Alexandria' where you can 'walk in' and search for anything that has ever been known by mankind (including video content since they own YouTube). Billions of people will be sitting in this 'Library Of Alexandria' for endless hours no matter their age group.

And Amazon will have their 'superstore' that you can visit to buy 'real life' stuff. Perhaps even this community will morph into a VR location where we can walk in and have an adult beverage with each other. It might even support being able to 'go out back and settle things' via a virtual fist fight. LOL
Don

Well, count me in!

Lol.

Jim

If you substitute sheep for fan above, I agree!



John

Baaaaaaa!

I don't have a google or a facebook account.

Indeed, I have no interactive online presence outside of this site.

I much prefer reality, and thus will not be participating.

Give me a fresh sandwich and a cold drink on a mountain top over "virtual reality" any day.


Two things to remember:

1) If the service is free, you are the product.

2) One big Carrington event and it's all over red rover for Mr Zuckerberg's billions.

More screen time = even more obesity in an already obese population.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ar.../PMC5769928/

If the so-called metaverse FB is marketing turns into something that is easy to use, doesn't involve heavy headgear and through which I can more effectively interact with my friends - instead of just posts, having live "meet ups" where we can share things - showing my stamp collection, sharing and talking photos and take-aways from our various misadventures, I'm in. Being able to virtually "hold" something and rotate it to see all sides of it is very, very useful. HOWEVER, the "virtualization" of real objectives is a non-trivial activity. Think about the difficulty many of us [me!] have simply trying to get good scans of stamps.

Likewise.

Albeit I joined Facebook about 6 weeks ago,
only for "Marketplace"
Being in a country town, and being able to access and hold items
in the city (a 5 hour drive) has been fabulous.

I joined as "Gumtree" my prev favourite was going downhill.

[Waiting for someone to wax poetic about watching Jack Benny on the Dumont, and waiting in line to buy concert tickets, and carburetors, and transmissions without synchros, and paying for groceries with a check, and LIFE Magazine, and carbon paper, and Edison cylinders, and the gold standard, and getting a malted for a Buffalo nickel, and…]

Because there's no better place to cry about the sky falling and technology killing civilization than on an online forum dedicated to philately.