Heh - social media edition

 

Speaking as a pastor (albeit a retired one), I had to smile at the news that Facebook was changing its name to "Meta".

Facebook is renaming itself Meta to reflect the company’s new priority on building a virtual reality world dubbed the metaverse.

“We are going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first,” Mark Zuckerberg said during a speech at the Facebook Connect event on Thursday. 

Zuckerberg announced the new brand after talking up his company’s ambitious goal of creating a VR world ... where virtual reality becomes so good it dominates people’s lives, becoming a new way to live, work, and play.

“Our mission remains the same: It’s still about bringing people together. Our apps and our brands, they’re not changing either. And we are still the company that designs technology around people. But now we have a new North Star. To help bring the metaverse to life,” Zuckerberg said.

There's more at the link.

A time-honored concept in Christian theology is "metanoia", which Wikipedia describes as follows:

Metanoia ... means after-thought or beyond-thought, with meta meaning "after" or "beyond" (as in the modern word "metaphysics") and nous meaning "mind" (as in the modern word "paranoia"). It is commonly understood as "a transformative change of heart; especially: a spiritual conversion." The term suggests repudiation, change of mind, repentance, and atonement; but "conversion" and "reformation" may best approximate its connotation. In The King James Version of the Bible, its verbal cognate ... is translated as "repent".

Metanoia is also a psychological term.  Wikipedia notes:

William James used the term metanoia to refer to a fundamental and stable change in an individual's life-orientation. Carl Gustav Jung developed the usage to indicate a spontaneous attempt of the psyche to heal itself of unbearable conflict by melting down and then being reborn in a more adaptive form – a form of self healing often associated with the mid-life crisis and psychotic breakdown, which can be viewed as a potentially productive process.

The thought of Facebook's new name representing repentance (a thoroughly faith-based value) for its (many) past sins against its customers, against our privacy, and against free speech, is a peculiarly appropriate one, wouldn't you say?  (Not that I think the Zuckerbot is at all likely to repent of such things, but one may dream...)  As for "having a new North Star", there's Biblical precedent for that, too.   When it comes to the psychological aspect, the thought of Facebook's Board of Directors jointly and severally "melting down and then being reborn" is equally engaging.

What about it, Facebook?  Embrace the Zuck!  Extend your "meta" to the full "noia", so the rest of us can enjoy the fireworks!

Peter