META
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I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about the current state of technology we find ourselves in today. NFTs, 5G, augmented and virtual reality, social media, and all the immense, ground-breaking changes our society has gone through in such a short amount of time. One of the main causes of my intrigue is, of course, Facebook’s recent rebrand, from “Facebook” to “Meta”, and what all they are doing means for the future of our livelihood as tech using human beings.
If you’ve been keeping up with what their plans are for Meta and the Metaverse, you’ll know that it feels like a straight up dystopian sci-fi movie, like Avatar, or Ready-Player One, (which are some of my favorite movies, people love to hate on Avatar for some reason?), only its not a movie at all, and Mark Zuckerberg is really about this shit, which, if I’m being honest, I am pretty damn excited about.
If you knew me in high school, you probably know how much I was obsessed with virtual reality and alternate avenues of existence. I was a massive lucid dreaming enthusiast, all I did was read about different ways to step out of this reality and explore other worlds and found bouts of inspiration and experienced things that you really cannot explain unless you experienced them yourself. And if you’re wondering, “Wait, lucid dreaming is actually real?”, the answer is YES! You can learn it and practice it and master it and it is as invigorating and wonderful as you could imagine. (And if you’re interested in learning, this is the site I always referred to to learn lol — World of Lucid Dreaming). I bring that up to say, what Meta is planning on doing, by integrating augmented reality into our everyday lives to “connect with people” as Zuckerberg puts it, in my opinion, is not as scary or dystopian as we might expect it to be. The widespread usage of social media has only been around since the early 2000s, and what have we learned in this short amount of time? Social media is detrimental to our health, our self worth and self concept, our communities, our relationships, and the list goes on. But why is that? The way I see it, with society’s integration of technology for a socially beneficial means, we haven’t fully stepped into a lifestyle where technology is absolutely mandatory for people to live their lives. Its almost like we have one foot in the old world and one foot in the new world, causing a discrepancy between which direction we want to take as a global community. We have not fully made a decision due to this fear that we’ve had of technology, of AI, of robots and holograms, and things we seen backfire in science fiction movies, and because of this, we’ve found confliction through the lack of intentionality. What Meta is doing, I believe, is making that decision for us. They are stepping up and saying, enough of the fear of the future, the 2000s was supposed to have holograms and flying cars, so let’s get there, and they are just going for it. And a lot of people are scared. A lot of people are hiding from smart glasses and avatars and any type of newness that technology brings nowadays. But I think, theres probably no way we are going to return to the natural state of existence where people communicated without technology, and kids rode their bikes around the neighborhood all day, and people became friends and entered relationships by meeting on a train or a park, and things were not absolutely reliant on the phone in your pocket and the laptop in your bag. It’s just not happening, at least not anytime soon. So why not fully embrace this new existence? If anything, it may be the closest thing to a natural state of society, because instead of trying to balance the natural state with the new state, we’d be embracing tech in a way that enhances — doesn’t take away — but enhances our state of existence, which is something that not only excites me, but is something I am convinced I can live with. I mean… we are supposed to be living in the future right??
What do ya’ll think? I’m curious.
P.S. For the record, I am not fond of Zuckerberg in the least.
Love,
B
Films I’ve Watched Recently
Gone Girl
By David Fincher
Scariest movie I’ve ever seen? Quite possibly. Keep this shit far away from me, thanks.
Jennifer’s Body
By Karyn Kusama
How come nobody told me?? Actually my professor of Cheesy Horror Films and Gothic Horror did many times, but still! I had no idea this movie was so good yo. I thought it’d be corny, but I didn’t cringe once. I thought it’d feel like just another high school flick but it wasn’t at all. Super fun, kinda genius. I see why its on Criterion.
Recent Dictionary Entries:
Blockchain - a system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are maintained across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network.
Retinue - a group of advisers, assistants, or others accompanying an important person.
Tom Wesselman - Thomas K. Wesselmann was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.
Erik Satie - Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma.
Feudalism - the dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.
Hittite - a member of an ancient people who established an empire in Asia Minor and Syria that flourished from c. 1700 to c. 1200 BC.; the Anatolian language of the Hittites, the earliest attested Indo-European language. Written in both hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts, it was deciphered in the early 20th century.; relating to the Hittites, their empire, or their language.
It is a faultless performance, but faultless performances cannot be celebrated. In the end, everyone thinks themselves capable of faultless performances, no courage seems to be required for a faultless performance.
- Franz Kafka
That's all from me for this one. Thank you for reading. And please drop a like, comment, or even send a personal reply to these emails if you feel inclined to. I'll be here.
B.