Ever since Mark Zuckerberg started talking about the “metaverse,” and Facebook changed its name to Meta, the internet has struggled to explain what that means. We have an explainer on the metaverse, but even that’s based on vague promises from Facebook representatives. There’s no clear picture on what Meta wants to do, but I think I have an idea.
The metaverse is Facebook’s play at social and cultural hegemony—a scheme to mask one company establishing control over how its technology is used by most human beings.
Does that sound crazy? Well, look at Facebook. It’s a social media platform that billions of people use to stay in touch and get their “news,” while that same platform has been accused of society-manipulating schemes for years. Profiting off of misinformation about everything from cigarettes and elections to vaccines, enabling and promoting extremists, and (this stings as someone in this industry) sharing misleading numbers about its video traffic, which prompted many outlets to shift their own strategies and lay off staffers.
Is a family member risking their life by refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccination? They probably were told of “dangers” in a Facebook group. Is a friend repeating lies about the 2020 election being stolen? They were probably told about “fraud” on Facebook. Are you already angry at me and going to comment on this article about vaccinations and elections? When was the last time you were on Facebook?
A Facebook You Can’t Escape
Okay, so Facebook has (allegedly) done some sketchy things. What does that have to do with the metaverse? Well, whether it’s called Facebook or Meta, it’s the same company working on the concept, and it’s stated very clearly that it wants to be the “next evolution of social connection.” It will use virtual reality, augmented reality, smart displays, and other technologies to bring people together under a single overarching platform run by the company.
Facebook’s already huge, and it’s already available on everything from computers to phones to the company’s own Oculus VR headsets and Portal smart displays. But it’s still just a social media service, a feed of posts combined with direct messaging, marketplace, and (fudged numbers or not) video features. Facebook’s the thing you go to to check on people you know, any news that might pop up, and maybe if someone’s selling an old Game Boy nearby. And it’s just that: A single service you can walk away from.
The metaverse wants to combine that service with VR headsets, AR displays, smart glasses, and a wider variety of experiences to turn Facebook into something bigger and more socially fundamental. Mark Zuckerberg’s hour-long introduction (above) of the metaverse outlines that pretty clearly, showing how VR and AR will let you connect even more with your loved ones And that’s where it starts looking as sinister as it does silly.
Remember, Facebook is a service you can look away from. It’s on a screen, but when you click on something else, it’s gone. The metaverse is a plan to break down those boundaries and turn Facebook into something you can’t really leave, because it’s always around you.
Why send messages back and forth between your friends when you can enjoy a concert together in virtual reality? Why rely on your own senses to experience an event or display when you can get even more content with augmented reality? Why take out your phone to share photos and videos when you can wear a camera on your face? Why use any other service when the metaverse does everything, literally right in front of your eyes?
The amazing thing is that most of this technology already exists and is available to consumers (except good, affordable AR displays; that’s still a work in process). Facebook has owned Oculus for years. Facebook recently reached out into the smart glasses space with Ray-Ban Stories (before that, there were Snapchat Spectacles). These are things that already exist, they’re just being tweaked and workshopped and rebranded so they cease to be mostly separate extensions of Facebook and become integral facets of the metaverse. It’s about perception and promotion as much as it is about technology.
The Lower Case
There is a big clue that the metaverse is a strategy to turn Facebook into a technological and social hegemony: It’s not capitalized.
In every single piece of information released by Meta/Facebook, the metaverse is referred to as “metaverse” rather than “Metaverse.” In terms of branding, marketing, and the perception of ownership, that is a very big difference. The Metaverse is a platform that Facebook runs. The metaverse is a broad concept of how we interact online, and it just so happens that all of its parts are controlled by Facebook.
Calling it the metaverse is absolutely intentional, and it’s more than a starry-eyed bit of futurism to predict what the internet is going to be like. It’s a conscious effort to distance the idea of the metaverse from Facebook’s identity and make it a big-picture concept of what it will eventually mean to be online, all while the company is building the pillars of that concept and turning it into a combined platform over which it has total control.
The idea of living in a Facebook or Meta world is frightening. It’s a reality where everywhere you turn, everything you see, every way you interact with someone is owned by that one company. It’s explicitly dystopian, and takes away any perception of choice. That’s what the Metaverse would be—one brand that encompasses everything.
But the metaverse? Well, that’s just the new internet, isn’t it? You can go anywhere on the metaverse. Sure, this service and that device are owned by Meta, but it’s not like the metaverse is theirs, right? It’s just the thing we’re on.
It sounds crazy at first, but consider how important brand ownership usually is to a company. Everything it controls needs its own special name, trademark, and copyright that proves that you can only get it from that company. Differentiating yourself from the competition is incredibly important in consumer product and service marketing. Don’t get that other dog food, or TV, or delivery service. Get ours, because it has what you want, and you can tell from the name!
So why isn’t Meta trying to make it clear that it plans to control the metaverse? Because if you can control every facet of a platform and spread it out to a big enough portion of the population, you don’t need to market like you do when you’re dealing with competition. You’re already effectively running everything, and while smaller names might pop up, your size has ensured that the barrier of entry and cost of expansion are too high for any of them to pose a threat. And, when your name isn’t on the platform, you can keep it distanced from any scandal or unsavory impression your company might have developed.
Other Sharks in the Water
Consolidating technologies, spreading a broad concept, and obfuscating its direct ownership of a massive platform seem to be Facebook/Meta’s strategy. And, let’s face it, Facebook’s already-huge influence means it just might succeed.
That isn’t certain, though. For as ambitious as the metaverse is, it’s far too vague for consumers to have more than a passing interest in it right now. This is a very wide-reaching plan with several different angles, and many of those angles are hard sells to consumers, already have strong competition that can potentially hold its own against Facebook, or both.
Facebook owns Oculus, but there are other big names in VR, like HTC and Valve. Facebook has its own Portal smart displays, but they’re at best a distant third to Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub. Facebook is working on its own AR glasses in Project Nazare, but it looks a long ways off from actually becoming consumer available. Every fight that Facebook/Meta fails to win is a huge chunk carved out of the metaverse. Will Facebook’s version get that capital M? We’ll have to see.
