The whole world is buzzing about Facebook which disappeared in the form in which we all knew it! This is why Zuckerberg did it!

Foto: Youtube/ Luxury Zone, TheRichest, Tanjug/AP

The whole world is buzzing about the move of one of the richest people in the world, Mark Zuckerberg, who, it seems to everyone, decided overnight to change the name of his giant company Facebook, best known for the eponymous social network, whose popularity is adequately described by the number of its users - as many as 2.89 billion people worldwide.

So, what happened then that made Zuckerberg decide to bring changes to the company that, as it is speculated, could have far-reaching consequences for his business? Moreover, it is still difficult to say whether they will be positive or negative. Either way, he decided that in the future the company would be called Meta.

Does this change the name of the social network Facebook?

Facebook has changed its name to Meta, but the name of the social network and its application remains unchanged. So, we will all still have the familiar blue logo on our phones with the white letter "f" written on it. On the other hand, the company got a completely new logo, which differs from the logo of the social network, all because of Zuckerberg's desire that the name of the entire company is not tied only and exclusively to Facebook.

- The name change will enable all our applications and brands to be under one new company brand - the company said in a statement.            

Since the founding of Facebook in 2004, the company has developed two other very popular applications in the world - Instagram and  WhatsApp, and it happened that many users around the world were not aware of that because they mostly associated the name Facebook with the social network. That is why Zuckerberg, among other things, decided to make changes.

In addition to Instagram and WhatsApp, the young billionaire has also invested in other technologies, including the Novi digital wallet, the Portal and the Oculus virtual reality system.

- Much of this rebranding is related to putting metaverses to life - states the portal abc.net.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

However, some sceptics believe that there is a plan to divert attention from the leak of information about Facebook's business behind Zuckerberg's move. This was recently presented by numerous former employees from that company.

As a reminder, individuals discovered how the company was aware of the gross violation of privacy on the social network Facebook, that it consciously gave preference to a certain group of advertisers and similar offenses. Also, the leaders of the company ignored the warnings that the use of the social network in certain forms can have an extremely harmful impact on the young population. 

What is a metaverse? 

Metaverse is a virtual world in which we can get involved and, in theory, be wherever we want and do anything. In films like The Matrix, Ready Player One, and Tron, that concept is already largely elaborated, and is usually associated with the story that people are dissatisfied with life in current societies and flee to some other reality.

- Metaverse will be a world where people will be able to socialise, create and expect to attract billions of people in the coming decades - Zuckerberg himself explained and noted that he is aware that he will not get even richer from that project in the near future, but that this was not his main motive for creating the metaverse.

- In essence, we believe that the metaverse is the successor to the Internet - Zuckerberg pointed out.

On the other hand, experts explain that the metaverse or metaverse is a speculative future form of the Internet, made up of numerous 3D virtual spaces connected into a virtual universe. The metaverse in a broader sense cannot refer only to virtual worlds, but to the Internet as a whole, including the entire spectrum of augmented reality.

The term was coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, where people, as avatars, communicate with each other and software agents, in a three-dimensional virtual space that uses a real-world metaphor. Stephenson used the term to describe the successor to the Internet based on virtual reality.

In the epilogue of Snow Crash, Stephenson said that after finishing the novel, he learned about Habitat, an early MMORPG game that resembled a metaverse.

Meta meaning

Meta is a prefix - a word that is placed in front of another - and means something after or above, something that exists on a higher level, or a change. For example, the metacarpal bones are the bones of the hand between the fingers and above the wrist, a metalanguage is the language used to describe another language, and metamorphosis means a change in shape.

However, in pop culture, meta has a slightly different meaning - to describe the moment when someone becomes self-aware.