After Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be rebranding to Meta yesterday, fans were leery about the switch, even though Facebook quickly announced that the names of their apps, like Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, would be staying the same.
In a live tweet, Zuckerberg unveiled plans for his “Metaverse,” which featured fans being able to interact as avatars in 3D virtual space. Fans weren’t exactly thrilled with this new development, with many fans asking why such technology was even needed in the first place.
Although Meta has announced plans to spend over $10 billion dollars to make “the next chapter in social connection,” the question on everyone’s minds is: is it worth it?”
Social Media Roasts Facebook Name Change
The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. It’s a collective project that will be created by people all over the world, and open to everyone. You’ll be able to socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what’s possible today. pic.twitter.com/655yFRm8yZ
— Facebook (@Facebook) October 28, 2021
Companies couldn’t help but poke fun at Facebook after news of its name change took Twitter by storm.
“Hello, we are still Hulu,” the streaming service tweeted only minutes after the name change was announced.
Wendy’s, who is known for its history of savage tweets, added, “Changing name to meat.”
Jimmy Fallon joked, “Yeah, Facebook changed their name. In response, Spectrum was like, ‘We used to be Time Warner; people still hate us.'”
Although the move was supposed to help improve fans’ perception of Facebook in light of recent public scrutiny, Phil Davis told the Wall Street Journal that name rebranding doesn’t always work. Although Apple made the right move when it dropped “Computer” from its name in 2007, Radio Shack still struggled after it changed its name to “The Shack.”
‘Thought This Was Satire’
Here’s our first sneak peek at Facebook’s so called metaverse, a virtual place where you can hang out with friends and so much more. pic.twitter.com/Ld5AY0WIz3
— Nathie (@NathieVR) October 28, 2021
Some who watched Zuckerberg’s animated demonstration of the new Metaverse software thought that the display was satirical.
Sociology professor Tressie McMillan Cottom tweeted, “Honest to god thought this was satire. Honest to god. This is the kind of pseudonym they give tech companies in Hallmark movies because it’s so ridiculously fake.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s review of the new Metaverse was scathing. She tweeted, “Meta as in ‘we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!’”
A lot of fans seemed to agree with AOC’s assessment as #DeleteMeta started trending on Twitter the day after the rebrand.
“Now that I’ve turned actual reality into a dystopian nightmare, I’m back to sell you a new virtual reality where everything is wonderful,” one fan joked. “Trust me!”
“So when Facebook steals your info, do we now call it Metadata?” another user added.
“This is so wrong,” another wrote. “It’s laughable that he describes it as ‘connecting with people’, when really it’s an avatar interacting in a video game world while the real human sits in a chair in declining health from lack of exercise.”
Another tweeted, “We do not want this in the Metaverse, we do not want to be products in Facebook’s Metaverse. Be better than this.”
Meta plans to invest over $10 billion dollars to make this virtual social media space a reality. Perhaps they should reconsider.
