Facebook Inc., the company that owns the world's most used social network, has changed its name. Meta is the new name of Facebook Inc., the company that brings together social networks like Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp and the virtual reality platform Oculus.
Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2021 changes in his company. Facebook Inc. will change its name and will be called Meta, which reflects his project of creating a "metaverse". His announcement raised several questions and a large number of memes and comments among users of the social network that were soon silenced: Facebook will continue to be called Facebook, what is being changed is the identity of his great company. So what exactly does 'Meta' mean?
In his speech, the executive president of the company explained that he wants to separate his brand from the product. "It can't represent everything we're doing today, let alone in the future," he said. This brings with it various meanings. On one hand, the literalness of the prefix -meta and, on the other, the objective of creating a "metaverse".
Going to its literal meaning, it comes from the Greek and means "after" or "beyond". In that sense, it is a concept that seeks an abstraction over another concept. But Zuckerberg took it to another level and used this prefix as a semblance of a project that will materialize within several years.
In the words of the CEO of Meta himself, it is the concretion of the company's commitment to the so-called metaverse. By definition, this term is used to "describe the concept of a future Internet interaction" that is made up of virtual spaces in three dimensions shared between users from all over the world.
Summarizing the idea, as Zuckerberg hopes, it is an online world where people connect through virtual reality glasses and have interaction elements -not yet developed- in order to feel a true immersion in that universe. That is to say, a virtual location, online, with sensory experience and in the first person.
Facebook was created to connect people and now we will connect people through the metaverse," warned the ideologue of this initiative. It is still in development and at the moment is nothing more than the sketch of something that will take many years to become a reality.
This change, however, will not affect the social networks that belong to the parent company: Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook will continue to be called the same and work the same as before. In fact, the modification will not have any type of effect for the users of said platforms.
The goal of Meta is to create a “metaverse”: a new digital universe that users will be able to access through virtual and augmented reality devices, such as smart glasses. The idea is to create a virtual and collective space that is the closest thing to reality, but without its physical limitations.
In this universe, people will interact through avatars, which can be customized by buying clothes with virtual money. The intention is to develop a space where you can chat with friends, attend events such as concerts, have work meetings or play video games, taking social interaction between digital users to the next level.
Until now, participating in social networks depended on being connected to a mobile or computer screen. However, the metaverse proposes to enter that cyberspace and start living within it, incorporating artificial intelligence in social networks.