Zuckerberg frequently talks about the “pivot to mobile” which is the successful big bet that he is clearly determined to recreate the conditions of. The article calls VR his idea of the next frontier but I think what he really is looking for is the next gold rush. Zuckerberg didn’t give marching orders but the only reason anyone was willing to walk out into the desert was because someone with a high profile was saying there’s gold out there.
Meta was intended to be a platform on which the objectionable stuff would be built or as the saying goes in a gold rush sell pickaxes. But in a wasteland the more apt metaphor is the one selling weapons while considering themself above the fray.
It is true that social media reflects our own society. However social media is much more than a mirror, it is both an engine that actively shapes society molding it into a more profitable one and itself a product of that society which already was increasingly atomized and profit driven.
It’s not enough to just ignore or silo the indecent, we have to build our own engine that encourages people to engage positively. Commercial social media is fundamentally incapable of this as it conflicts with their profit driven motive. We can’t blame people for getting on the train to the wasteland, we need to build the train to utopia and convince people to get on it.
Zuckerberg frequently talks about the “pivot to mobile” which is the successful big bet that he is clearly determined to recreate the conditions of. The article calls VR his idea of the next frontier but I think what he really is looking for is the next gold rush. Zuckerberg didn’t give marching orders but the only reason anyone was willing to walk out into the desert was because someone with a high profile was saying there’s gold out there.
Meta was intended to be a platform on which the objectionable stuff would be built or as the saying goes in a gold rush sell pickaxes. But in a wasteland the more apt metaphor is the one selling weapons while considering themself above the fray.
It is true that social media reflects our own society. However social media is much more than a mirror, it is both an engine that actively shapes society molding it into a more profitable one and itself a product of that society which already was increasingly atomized and profit driven.
It’s not enough to just ignore or silo the indecent, we have to build our own engine that encourages people to engage positively. Commercial social media is fundamentally incapable of this as it conflicts with their profit driven motive. We can’t blame people for getting on the train to the wasteland, we need to build the train to utopia and convince people to get on it.