Goodbye Facebook, Hello Meta

Story by Jaslene Barnes. Photo courtesy of newsweek.com

NOV. 18, 2021: Give a warm welcome to Meta, Facebook’s new and improved brand. When Facebook came out on February 4th, 2004, it was a big hit that demolished many other social media platforms. However recently, Facebook has developed a bad reputation and negative press, so the company thought changing the name and repositioning themselves as new would help. 

Some of that negativity has caused Facebook to be named the worst brand in 2019. According to Fast Company, “The NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, as well as Color of Change, Free Press, Common Sense, and Sleeping Giants, want to force Facebook to stem the sheer amount of hate speech and divisive content on the platform and halt its long-standing tolerance of problematic posts by President Trump and his campaign. Also big brands joined in on the cause—like Adidas, Ford, Lego and more.” 

Mark Zuckerberg also announced that the company is planning on making “Meta” a metaverse. A metaverse is a virtual environment that will allow people to be present with each other in digital spaces. It is a combination of multiple types of technology with one of them being virtual reality. You have the ability to move around and teleport without restrictions in your own home and you can even create your own character. Meta will be released during the first half of 2022 and we’ll finally get to try it out. 

Jaslene Barnes is an 8th grade scholar at Friendship Woodridge International School.