GerdTalks Episode 3 Futurist Gerd Leonhard: Future of Meta/Facebook Social Media KEYNOTE (Audio)

This is the Audio-version only of GerdTalks Episode 3, live-streamed on Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitch and many other platforms (not on Facebook:). More details: https://www.futuristgerd.com/gerdtalks3

Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/HNUUNKMQzTc

Facebook / META has become toxic and needs to be purged. In this video I present my case against FB/Meta and explore the future of social media.

AI-fuelled, data-driven and automated 'media' has become extremely powerful and omni-present in our lives. Digital feudalism is the new normal, and the surveillance economy is pervasive. Facebook/Meta is the prime example of what goes wrong when algorithms, an obsession with monetisation and a general lack of respect for human principles and ethics run the show.

Meta/FB's increasing power and enormous technological prowess have resulted in rampant manipulation, fast-spreading misinformation, a boom in fake news, reality distortions and half-truths, and generally have amplified a feeling of despondency and loneliness among many of it's users (particularly on Instagram).

On top of this FB/Meta represents the most perfect surveillance machine ever invented - and we've all been sucked into accepting this as 'normal'. And now, meta-master Zuck wants us to follow him into his glorious Metaverse, where we can be anyone, anywhere, anytime, and literally live in his perfect simulations. Who needs that messy real-life when you can have a perfect virtual life, anyway?

I have a hunch that the Metaverse might turn out to be everything we've ever wanted, but will offer little of what we really NEED. In this video, I contemplate the implications and consequences of the concept that the Metaverse is the next edition of social media (and indeed the Internet)... only 100x as troublesome.

In this video I also address the overall challenges of social media such as the many side-effects of AI-based content automation, and the aberrations resulting from what I call 'digital obesity' and excessive FOMO.

I have come to the conclusion that too many social media companies - and particularly FB/Meta - have become a lot like 'Big Oil' - the externalities of their activities are not their concern; let someone else worry about them!

I believe that we are facing a new threat of 'digital pollution' on top of the environmental pollution we have already caused - and that this has even more potential to damage our societies.