Friday October 29, 2021; 11:43 AM EDT
- They changed their name to Meta. A two-syllable name that shortens to the first. Meh.#
- Remember the name "Facebook" means many things, at least eight. #
- Mark Zuckerberg. #
- A public corporation.#
- 60K employees. #
- Servers, software, other tech.#
- An advertising platform.#
- A user community.#
- Connections to the rest of the web.##
- All the content -- video, images, posts, comments, live events, current and past.#
The thing that got renamed was #2. All the rest are still there. Yet no one will speak for Facebook #6. Can you imagine 2.9 billion people and it's defined by a handful of columnists and reporters in mostly American news orgs. And there's a company that can communicate with all of them, any time they want for $0. And they have nothing to say other than we're going to change our name now. #- According to Pew, a credible source, all the American news orgs combined have about 15 million readers. Facebook #6, the user community, is 2.9 billion. Could Facebook mount a defense? It wouldn't be a fair fight. They would destroy the news orgs' message about Facebook being an evil swamp of petty Boomer sludge and garbage. Instead they run away, give up, let the journalists define "Facebook." And this is what they say about it. #
- The bleakest version of what Facebook might become in the next few years, if current trends hold — a Boomer-dominated sludge pit filled with cute animal videos and hyperpartisan garbage — is clearly not the kind of thing the company wants as its flagship product.#
- As one of FB's 2.9 billion users I am offended by this description of who we are and what we do by Kevin Roose in today's NYT. It's totally consistent with the campaign journalism is running against the FB #6, the online community. What do they throw at us? Sludge, garbage etc. Geez Louise. What has become of the NY Times?#
- Facebook (the company, #2) markets like a company that's never had a fight. Just glided into dominance. Well now they have to fight. What do they do? Run away. Oy.#
- If they don't want to stand up for the 2.9 billion users, who are not mostly Boomers (there aren't that many of us) and mostly use Facebook #4 as a reasonably reliable online connector for an always-expanding set of uses, a very small portion committed to overthrowing the US government, at least help us stand up for it.#
- I use Facebook only because the people are there. It's the closest thing to a universal online service. Based on what I know about cycles in tech, Facebook #2 (the company) has a small chance of prevailing in their goal to reinvent themselves to be important in the next wave. It has never happened, even with leaders who were more prepared for it than Zuckerberg is. Companies have to stand for something beyond money and dominance. #
- The journos belong in a special place in hell. Someday it's going to be just as intolerable to shame people based on age, as it is to shame people based on race, gender, religion, sexual preference, identity etc. Kevin Roose will try apologize someday for what he said in today's NY Times. I hope I live to see his disgrace. #