Metaverse: Zuckerberg draws ridicule

The Metaverse has been Mark Zuckerberg’s core project for some time. Not only has he renamed his company from Facebook to Meta, but he has also put a considerable amount of the company’s financial and human resources into developing this virtual world. However, the Metaverse has not gone down too well with the public so far.

Eiffel Tower and Sagrada Familia

The reason for the latest wave of publicity is a graphic from the Metaverse that Zuckerberg shared on his private Facebook profile. Here, his avatar can be seen against a simple green background. Also on the image are representations of the Eiffel Tower as well as the Sagrada Familia. The most striking thing is the miserable quality of the graphics: The fact that it is supposed to be the Sagrada Familia is only clear from the context; the Eiffel Tower looks misshapen and Zuckerberg’s avatar could have been taken from children’s series of the 90s. In short: In this form, the Metaverse does not seem like the future of the Internet.

As a result, various people in various media pounced on the graphic and used it to create memes. Zuckerberg’s avatar in particular was frequently used and photoshopped, for example, into excerpts from the film The Social Network, which depicts the founding of Facebook in fictionalized form. The memes thereby oscillate between pure amusement and well-founded criticism of Zuckerberg’s work.

Zuckerberg responds

Zuckerberg himself has meanwhile reacted and defended the Metaverse project. In a statement, for example, he pointed out that the shared graphic was a quickly compiled image that did not reflect the Metaverse’s graphic. Zuckerberg also shared a customized avatar that is supposed to represent himself. The graphics here are recognizably more modern, but still fall far short of today’s technical possibilities.

Overall, Zuckerberg makes it clear that he wants to stick to his chosen path and push the metaverse forward. Other companies, however, have meanwhile abandoned unbroken euphoria. Tinder, for example, has significantly reduced its investments in this type of model. This is probably mainly due to the general criticism of the project. Many people do not see the Metaverse as the utopia that Zuckerberg wants to sell it as, but rather as just another way of capitalizing on the Internet and social interactions. In addition, there are reports about sexual harassment in the Metaverse.