I’m in the car listening to a news radio program. The host is interviewing a tech expert about Facebook’s rebrand to Meta. They discuss how the rebrand is an attempt to distance the Facebook holding company from the negative associations people have with the social media platform. The guest touches on the fact that Facebook is unlikely to recover from the problems that dog its image. And then Zuck Muckerberg comes on, with his version of a warm and reassuring voice, that’s weirdly reminiscent of Ed Kemper, “… in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people and the Metaverse is the next frontier.”
I come up to a traffic circle and I don’t bother to swerve, instead I let the car bounce over the island. For some reason, that one sentence angers me. And I’m angry because Mark is lying. If anything, Facebook has been isolating and outraging people for the past decade. All indications are that social media does nothing to make us feel connected. At its very best, it makes us feel updated.
But Zuck is still speaking, and I’ve successfully navigated the traffic circle despite my anger. “…yet it was always clear that the dream was to feel present with the people we care about. Isn’t that the ultimate promise of technology?” I take my eyes off the road. I’m not breathing. I’m grinding my teeth as I spit out the words, “What the actual fuck?”
I don’t like Mark Zuckerberg
And I don’t like Facebook, Instagram and am starting to feel mildly annoyed by WhatsApp. I find Twitter mildly interesting, and LinkedIn is okay, despite my feelings of inadequacy every time I’m on the site.
And I’m saying this, so that you’re aware of my slight negative bias towards Mark and Facebook.
And as I write this, I’m aware that I sound like an old man going through the initial stages of tech atrophy. Tech atrophy is what I call it when people stop caring about what technology can do for them. For instance, tech atrophy made it impossible for my grandfather to program a VCR, makes a smart phone indecipherable for my barber and makes Tik Tok a mystery for anyone over the age of 40.
I now, for some reason, feel compelled to mention that I am confident in my belief that fewer than 20 people on earth genuinely understand blockchain, crypto and NFTs. I’m not one of them, but I know more than the average bear. And that brings me some comfort, as I might not be completely technologically illiterate, yet.
So, what’s my issue with Facebook, Instagram, and Meta?
If you live in Sydney, you will have been in lockdown for almost half of 2021. It’s been tough. Not seeing friends and family is hard. And with the Australian government closing Australia’s borders, not knowing when or if we will ever again get to see family who live abroad has been its own special kind of torture.
I have a mother and sister who live in South Africa, and another sister who lives in Canada. Over the past two years I called them and face timed with them less frequently than I would’ve like. I spoke to my mother perhaps once or twice a month, my sisters less often. And the reason for this is that talking to them made them feel even further away than not speaking to them at all. Despite the amazing technology we now have, speaking and seeing my family on a screen made them feel more absent somehow. It reminded me that I couldn’t be with them. The end of our conversations were depressing affairs. After hanging up, I felt hollow, a regret, part of me wishing I hadn’t called.
And now I have Mark Zuckerberg telling me that the purpose of technology is to connect people, and that the metaverse is going to make it feel like we’re there, with the people we care about most. Ugh.
The 3 reasons Mark is wrong about the Metaverse being able to replace human connection
Firstly, connecting people isn’t part of Facebook’s DNA. As I said previously, Facebook is good at updating people and helping us share information. But connecting? No chance. Facebook doesn’t seem to understand the essence of human connection. If they did, they wouldn’t put ads next to the photos of my nephews winning medals at their last swim meet. Or use algorithms to show me posts that are intended to provoke outrage just so they can keep me engaged on their platforms for longer.
Secondly, I believe technology is there to make the world smaller. By this I mean that technology makes storing and transmitting data faster and simpler. Technology makes travel faster, it accelerates communication. It even shortens the time it takes to get energy into our homes.
But it can never replace or recreate the feeling one has in the presence of another human being. I might be wrong on this one, but from the time we wrote letters all the way through to us being able to contact anyone and see their faces on a mobile phone screen, it has never been as good as being there with someone. The energy between two people when they’re in one another’s presence is real. It might be negative or positive, but it’s there. When you’re on one screen talking to another person on a screen, all the energy you feel is your own. You generate it all by yourself. And that’s partly why spending days on Facetime and Zoom meetings is so exhausting. You’re alone, by yourself trying to decipher what is happening between you and this other person who feels so far away.
Consider dating apps. Dating apps would make so much more money if they could keep people ‘connecting’ on their platform instead having them meet one another face-to-face. That’s because, once two people meet and fall in love the app becomes obsolete. But dating app developers seem to understand that humans can meet one another through technology, but they can’t connect through technology. And, more importantly, when they’re connected they no longer need the technology.
Finally, we’ve had metaverses before. Remember Second Life? The virtual world in which you created an avatar, were able to dress it and do everything that Zuckerberg described in his update? It was launched in 2003. In 2004 Marketers were talking about Adidas selling shoes for avatars in the game, for real money. We were all talking about how this is the future of the internet and how it would change how we interact and live forever. And yet, in 2018 the number of people still playing Second Life was fewer than 500,000. Once the novelty wears off there aren’t that many people who want to have a party or go to a concert in some artificial realm. It’s not what humans are wired for. We crave and need real life experiences.
And then there’s Mark himself
I’m not going to say anything about the damage Facebook has done to our public discourse and our ability to resolve our ideological differences. Or the harm it’s doing to the confidence of young people. Or the fact that is has corrupted democratic elections across the globe. Instead, I’m going to talk about Mark himself.
I don’t know Mark personally. But, for all I know, he might be the most genuine, warmest, gentlest, nicest guy around. He might just be that one person you want at every one of your dinner parties. And let’s assume he is all these things. Considering the shit his company is going through, you would expect Mark to come out and convey some of that warmth and humanity that people believe he and his organisation lack.
But, when I watch his update, or see him ‘playing’ in his metaverse, I don’t feel any warmth or reassurance. His update at the annual Connect conference and his interactions with his staff, all of it feels strange. It’s as if it was all contrived, but not by a person. It feels like it was written and directed by someone who doesn’t have a particularly good grasp of human emotions or human interactions. The whole thing is cold and has a sinister edge to it. Look at the people’s hand gestures; the way Mark’s staff laugh at his jokes. They look afraid.
And that is what bothers me most. The announcement, the update, all of it is a bit too clinical and slightly disquieting. And if this is how a company that wants to connect people launches its vision, instead of being inspired, I’m left asking; what are they not telling us? What are they all hiding?
Real life human connection
I believe exploration and curiosity are intrinsic to us as a species. We have spent most of our short existence searching for the boundaries of our capabilities. It is this drive to explore that’s led us to every corner of this planet, to the moon and into space.
However, over the past 12 months, I’ve seen billionaires all looking for ways to leave earth. Elon, Richard, and Jeff are all devising ways for a select few to escape this blue globe we all live on.
And now we have another billionaire trying to escape this world be building virtual world.
And I’m starting to wonder if these people are really wanting to explore the potential reaches of human ingenuity or if they are merely trying to escape us, other people; the masses that lead messy and complicated lives. And the more I think about it the more I believe that these wealthy and isolated few who want to escape the reality of where we live aren’t doing it for us. Instead, they’re doing it because they struggle to be part of this world, part of our slightly imperfect humanity.
Perhaps we need to listen and worry less about what a wealthy few want for us and instead focus on growing and preserving what is wonderous and beautiful about our existence in this reality.