It's a long essay, but is also a ell written introduction to
Facebook's VR world (and Zuckerberg's lovechild), the Metaverse. It's
less about the technical aspects, and more about what it's actually
like to really use it, especially regarding the social aspects. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-meta-horizon-worlds.html
And, okay, the article does come across a little bit like 'old man
discovers chat room', because a lot of the behavior he describes is
exactly the sort you find on most social platforms. Still, this
behavior* can be chilling to those unaware of it. And nothing about
the Metaverse cures this problem. In fact, the immediacy of VR and the absolute lack of any real content only makes it worse.
Which is, generally, the whole point of the article; how pointless and sophomoric the whole experience is. It's an Internet Chat room open to
the general public, which both limits the intimacy and functionality.
The former means all conversations will be superficial small-talk;
everyone is a stranger to one another. And despite Facebook and
Zuckerberg's fervent assertions to the contrary, VR is nowhere near a replacement for real life; your actions are strictly curtailed to what
the developers scripted into the program (and let's not even get into
how primitive Facebook's metaverse is visually to begin with). There's
a rather humorous description of the author researching various porn
resulted VR games, and its hard to imagine anyone beyond the most
sex-starved teenager having any interest in it.
Worse are how Facebook attempts to gameify and monetize all social interactions; where you can earn points (that buy you cheap bonuses
like T-shirts) for 'the many small acts of goodwill people perform for
one another every day'. It unconsciously trains the mind to put
monetary value to acts that should be reflexive, and its haunting to
imagine how it may subtly be pervading the real-life actions of people immersed in Facebook's virtual world.
The author himself is obviously not technically adept; geeks have more forbearance for the limitations of VR, often blinding themselves to
its shortcomings and focusing only on its potential. Still, people
like the author are exactly the sort of people that the Metaverse need
to attract if it hopes to be in anyway successful, and it's amusing to
read the reactions of an 'ordinary person' trying to immerse
themselves in its strange culture.
If you have the ten minutes or so, I recommend giving it a read.
* sometimes described as the 'greater internet fuckwad theory', where
the anonymity and distance offered by internet communications often
brings out antisocial behaviors
On 17/03/2023 16:59, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
* sometimes described as the 'greater internet fuckwad theory', where
the anonymity and distance offered by internet communications often
brings out antisocial behaviors
It could be rose tinted spectacles but it does feel that the standard of >online discourse has been in steady decline for many, many years. It's
the main reason I choose to cull a lot of my social media engagement at
the end of last year. The art of being able to have a civilised
conversation where each person considers the other's point of view seems
to be a dying one. It's been replaced by if I act like an arsehole to
you then you'll stop speaking to me and I can think I won an argument.
Nope it just makes you look like an arsehole.
On Sat, 18 Mar 2023 11:25:02 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
On 17/03/2023 16:59, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
* sometimes described as the 'greater internet fuckwad theory', where
the anonymity and distance offered by internet communications often
brings out antisocial behaviors
It could be rose tinted spectacles but it does feel that the standard of
online discourse has been in steady decline for many, many years. It's
the main reason I choose to cull a lot of my social media engagement at
the end of last year. The art of being able to have a civilised
conversation where each person considers the other's point of view seems
to be a dying one. It's been replaced by if I act like an arsehole to
you then you'll stop speaking to me and I can think I won an argument.
Nope it just makes you look like an arsehole.
It doesn't help that so many Internet communications these days
consist of one or two lines. It's all good to be pithy and concise but
if you only speak in sound bytes then you'll never be able to
communicate your ideas effectively. Which leads to misunderstandings
by others, who also - limited to one or two sentence communiqués -
can't adequately make you understand their point of view.
Whereas, if both sides took the time to sit down and write out their arguments, not only might people see where they are coming from, but
also see them as real people with real issues rather than just
somebody making a one-off quip. But no, nowadays, it's all "TL;DR" and
we all jump to the next outrage (or cat video).
But admittedly, I may be a bit biased. You may have noticed over the
years that I have a tendency towards loquacity. Don't blame me, I was brutally taught not to make one-line "me too" responses in the early
days of Usenet; some of those scars still haven't healed.
TL;DR: the death of long-form communications is destroying society.
;-)
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