Facebook’s Meta reboot: Do we really want to live in Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse?

Zuckerberg speaks to an avatar of himself in the 'Metaverse' during a live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference to announce the rebrand of Facebook as Meta, in this screen grab taken from a video. — Facebook/Handout via Reuters

LOS ANGELES: The metaverse is coming, according to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook who is now trying to reinvent the company under a new name: Meta Platforms.

In a presentation Oct 28 at the Facebook Connect conference, Zuck announced the corporate name change. He pitched the metaverse (which, for now, is mostly hypothetical) as a game-changer: “In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.” Are you sold on living in The Matrix yet?