Facebook’s Future Plans and Their Implications on Networks Research
This past month, Facebook recently rebranded with the name “Meta.” Although their social media site will still be named “Facebook,” the company aims to distance itself from being “just a social media company,” as they own various other products like Instagram, Oculus (a virtual reality headset), and Whatsapp and have begun to delve into industries like augmented reality. The name change comes at an inopportune time, as a whistleblower recently revealed internal documents from the company detailing the effect of its apps on teenagers, and other controversial information. The company also explained a long-term plan to create a “metaverse” that unites real, virtual, and augmented spaces. Although this concept is in its infancy, Meta hopes to revolutionize human interactions and social media as a whole.
This article connects to our discussions of real-life networks and giant components. Generally, when we think of social networks between people, we think of networks between real-life friends, networks of “friends,” “followers,” or “mutuals” on social media, or even networks between individuals who play online video games with each other. All of these networks are generally thought of as distinct. However, Meta is attempting to unite all of these networks through the “metaverse.” This hypothetical infrastructure would be a “composite universe melding online, virtual and augmented worlds that people can seamlessly traverse.” This combination of different frameworks isn’t something we have really discussed in class or in the textbook. While we have discussed social networks and giant components, we usually assume that the network is only in the real or virtual worlds. It will be interesting to see if this metaverse succeeds and how it would affect the research of social networks as a whole. Either way, it will be interesting to see what Meta does in the future.