The Spawn of Meta, Part I
Relativity, by M. C. Escher. Lithograph, 1953. Image attribution: Fair use.
Does anyone else feel like “Meta” is clinging to the air around them in some way? Before Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook in an attempt to save his company’s curdling brand, I’d mostly associated the term “meta” as a trailing end of a sentence, used loosely and flippantly, mostly by the casual modern day philosophers when they couldn’t really continue to add definition to whatever it was they were philosophizing on… “how meta.” I’m simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by the (re?)invigorated concept Zuckerberg put forth in his founder’s letter about Meta - a world with edges that trail off as amorphously as our philosopher's ponderous “how meta…” Zuckerberg claims the new Meta-verse logo represented by an askew Möbius strip - literally a non-orientable surface - is going to be defined by the quality of feeling present.
Some aspects of “the new internet” sound compelling: for instance, “teleportation,” “connection,” and “reducing my carbon footprint” - sign me up! But as recent history has shown us, a healthy human psyche, both of the individual and the collective, consistently plays out at odds with the corporate values that profit big tech - “move fast and break things.” This approach may be OK when what is breaking is a line of code, but devastating when it’s a person’s well-being and ultimately life.
Claudio Schwarz @purzlbaum. Curtesy of Unspsalsh.
Frances Haugen, Facebook whistleblower, shared her testimony merely a few weeks before “Meta” was spawned (at least publicly). Haugen begins by sharing that she joined Facebook because of its potential to do good and connect people. An expert on the algorithms used by Silicon Valley’s biggest players, she shares the danger Facebook embodies in its approach to engaging children on their platform. I’m listening…
“Facebook repeatedly encountered conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved those conflicts in favor of its own profits… Facebook chooses what information billions of people see, shaping their perception of reality. ”¹ Haugen continues that no one is safe from the influence of Facebook, even non-users who inhabit the same world as users. The algorithm’s influence sometimes brings harm, hate, violence, and even death. The algorithm’s influence is designed to be insidiously predatory to vulnerable groups - including a group we at LookUp care about: the next generation, our youth.
beasty @beastydesign. Curtesy of Unspsalsh.
Even the language we ascribe to the internet-verse is akin to other dangerous or addictive substances - a plight Haugen echoes in her plea. Haugen calls for legislative action - not dissimilar to protections in place to encourage automobile safety or to discourage smoking tobacco. With Meta, Facebook wants to go from shaping our perception of our reality to shaping our actual reality - our “feeling of presence” as Zuckerberg names it in his letter where he invites us into his new world. It’s not hard to imagine how joining the Meta-verse might happen. First it will be an elite space, initially inhabited by only those who can afford access; we all know that a world founded initially on exclusion can hardly be a harbinger of universal connection. At some point in its evolution, if you have the internet and a little bit of gear (don’t forget the privilege of internet connectivity), you’ll be able to inhabit the Meta-verse. Like its social predecessors, at its best, the Meta-verse will be a place where you can find a positive and uplifting community. At worst, we’ll find that dangerous and even deadly radicalization that compelled Haugen to try to fix Facebook by joining Facebook; this time that infinite chasm, showing its familiar face in hologram. I’m not a Luddite and I’d like to believe that even the Meta-verse could ideally be a positive, additive place - bridging gaps we haven’t been able to cross before. Many have been broken at the hands of a greedy algorithm - at LookUp we are especially concerned with the way young people are harmed.
In his founder's letter Zuckerberg posits that we all need to work together, and on that point I don’t disagree. Mark, if you’re reading this, let us at LookUp hold the megaphone to the young voices you should hear. Check out Part II.
To the future,
Sam Carpenter
Executive Director, LookUp
¹ Statement of Frances Haugen, US Committee on Commerce, Science, Sub-committee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, 117th Cong. (2021) (testimony of Frances Haugen).
