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Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

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Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#281

Post by HappyTypist »

nicodjimenez wrote: post #250
frisco wrote: post #25

I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…

The real pivot for FB was their pivot to Instagram, with facebook.com pivoting to a "secret police" business model and shutting down open discussions, which used to flourish there. They've done this very well. FB today is more of a political organization than a business organization especially in the US. The Metaverse is just a distraction from this development that will have no impact on their cash cow Instagram. Th…

Insightful observation. Arab Spring changed Facebook and social media, across the whole world.

Don't forget the AI moderation-on-post. Just recently, a popular 'influencer' posted a scam. I left a comment saying such, along with a comment that the influencer should be ashamed of himself, and immediately, an AI filter told me that my comment may go against the Community Standards, and that repeated attempts to comment would lead to account deactivation. There is no appeal button.

To those building these technologies, beyond false positives and coverage error, it takes one law or PR incident for you to re-train this model against dissent. And to those building technologies like Apple's CSAM scanning, it takes one DB replacement to make it flag photos of the Hong Kong protests or Tank Man.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#282

Post by ryandrake »

daniel_reetz wrote: post #256
clpm4j wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to say, that based on my family and friends who I occasionally watch TV shows and movies with, I'm the only person who is able to focus on the TV screen without my phone in sight. Everyone else I know is constantly half-listening, half-watching, while simultaneously browsing IG, Zillow, YT, TikTok, etc. I think our very real phone addictions are going to play an adverse role in VR adoption until the VR app spa…

Powerful insight. And the tech giants own phone addiction - as a product and data source - also slows the progress of all AR and VR efforts.

The first killer accessory in the metaverse will be some kind of pass-through phone gateway or phone proxy that people can use as a substitute for their physical phone, to satiate their compulsive need to (ABC) Always Be Checking it. I don't see people accepting strapping on a headset that blocks access to their primary addiction.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#283

Post by bozhark »

toast0 wrote: post #266
frisco wrote: post #25

I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…

Disclosure: I worked at WhatsApp, part of Facebook, until the end of 2019. If you think the name change means they're focusing on the metaverse, that's just convenient. The fact is, Facebook is a toxic brand and Meta is just a silly looking brand. Post name change, they can do acquisitions and brand them as X by Meta without associating to the toxic brand. (Plus, maybe they can get the Mennen ad team to add 'by Meta'…

Reality: the name change doesn’t hide anything.

Neat to think they believe it does.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#285

Post by tootie »

frisco wrote: post #25

I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…

I think the huge confusion they are partaking in the difference between data and UI. A 3d virtual world can exist independently from a headset. The headset is just a phone you strap to your face. And the data behind that 3d virtual world is just a 2d virtual world with a z-axis. We've been building 3d games for decades and we've built 3d UIs for nearly as long and they never catch on. They're hard to navigate and, more importantly, convey absolutely no extra information. The entire move from physical interaction like shopping at a store to virtual interaction like e-commerce is that the 2d world is way more efficient. We've already built a fully functional metaverse. We've built fully digital models of commerce, healthcare, education, communication, finance, travel. All of which has UIs that work perfectly well on flat screens. Putting that inside a headset is just not a groundbreaking change.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#286

Post by Firmwarrior »

clpm4j wrote: post #219
closedloop129 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VR only underdelivers when compared to full emergence. You don't need a television when you have a VR headset. I think that Meta's headsets will be the the consoles for the next generation because TV sets are not a given anymore. So a console becomes more expensive because you have to also buy a television.

I have to say, that based on my family and friends who I occasionally watch TV shows and movies with, I'm the only person who is able to focus on the TV screen without my phone in sight. Everyone else I know is constantly half-listening, half-watching, while simultaneously browsing IG, Zillow, YT, TikTok, etc. I think our very real phone addictions are going to play an adverse role in VR adoption until the VR app spa…

I used to do that a lot, and I finally realized that I actually didn't care about what was on the TV and just started leaving it off. Either a show is worth actually watching or it isn't IMO.

I guess it's a little bit of a different story if it's just the centerpiece of family time, though..

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#287

Post by skinnymuch »

bornfreddy wrote: post #98
tempsy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean hard to leave a job where you’re getting paid hundreds of millions.

Does that still matter the second year and after that? In other words, is there a difference between having 100m and 200m? I would assume you can afford pretty much the same things with both of the amounts... (no first-hand experience)

Yes. Wildly rich people are incredibly greedy? Wildly rich people seem to care about more money far more than someone making low 6 figures.

Neoliberalism is the most popular ideology by far in the world. Something that is tightly roped into more and more money and greed being important. Look at how Howard Schultz, Bezos, Musk, and all the other rich people in those companies are reacting to unions. It’s as if them losing 10% of their insane wealth is the end of the world.

Hopefully people can think more like you. The world would be a better place.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#288

Post by elif »

frisco wrote: post #25

I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…

I see things completely opposite, other than my agreement that the current meta implementation is categorically bad.

The way I see it, Facebook is dead. It lost its place in society by forcibly combining free online expression with personal identity and responsibility. What remains is a culturally normative repository of groupthink with fewer and fewer participants deriving novel value, and that is reflected in the userbase trends.

What meta represents philosophically is a return to semi-anonymized and immediate human-to-human interaction, without the pretense of permanence or the necessity to project only socially righteous behavior. It is a natural, and by nature ephemeral medium. It is the only hope for meta long-term, and beating apple out of the gate is an encouraging sign to me.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#289

Post by fumar »

fleddr wrote: post #239
PheonixPharts wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The entire internet subsists on ads. I don't understand how people can make this statement and not immediately realize their is something deeply, deeply wrong about this situation. Ads derive their value from the product being sold, the fact that ads themselves have become the economic underpinning of the entire internet, rather than actual things being sold, should tell you there is a problem.

Everybody realizes it's wrong. The issue is not a lack of understanding. The issue is the lack of an alternative. People will not pay a penny for the vast majority of the internet, whether they be social networks or just plain websites. They won't donate either or do "micro transactions", not at the scale in which ads currently deliver revenue. So for the vast majority of the internet, no ads = no money. And it ends…

I was recently taken aback by how much some of the online major destinations make per site load with ads. It is over $.04 USD. People visit hundreds of pages per day. What consumer will pay over $10 daily to access content that is free with ads?

Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO

#290

Post by danpalmer »

oldstrangers wrote: post #58
frisco wrote: post #25

I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…

Facebook was always doomed for failure, just like every social platform that came before it. The pivot should've happened years ago with a focus on Instagram and content creation (their shot at streaming was at least in the right direction). At this point, Facebook has simply waited entirely too long, and the likelihood of any pivot working for a company of their size is basically nonexistent.

I think Facebook (the company) have known that Facebook (the social network) was never going to live forever.

The first pivot was into Photos. A mini pivot, but an important one as being a glorified contact list and blog was on the way out.

Then they saw another competitor rising, so they bought it to ride its lifecycle. Instagram.

Then into Messaging, with messenger and WhatsApp. Most people I know use one or both of these and not Facebook.

There have been other smaller pivots to stay relevant overall, even if any one piece of the business is dying, and I think that’s good business practice.

Whether the meta verse turns out to be the next wave or not is essentially their current bet.

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