which is why facebook was smart to buy instagram (checks notes) 10 years ago. Time for them to buy the next gen interface for socializing with friends for zoomers
Meta might not be legally able to buy “the next big thing” in international markets. Neither the EU nor the US are particularly “friendly” to them right now, and pretty much anything Meta does in the social media category is going to run up against anti-trust regulation.
Instagram was probably the last time Facebook could have gotten away with that sort of thing in the North American and European markets. I’m being cautious to only include those markets because I’m not familiar with the regulatory environment elsewhere.
People weren't happy with Instagram selling to Facebook, but the bigger problems and general drag of Facebook being Facebook didn't exist at the time. Now selling to Facebook is almost a surefire way to lose street cred. Snapchat famously said no to $3bn, and TikTok probably wouldn't consider it for any amount.
I really can't imagine any situation where a younger gen z kid finds anything Facebook owns cool. I think their window has closed, and as the parent comment says, Facebook can't do it anymore simply because they're Facebook.
I'm specifically talking about younger gen z... 14 and 15 year olds today.
I might be basing too much on a few anecdotes, but it seems Instagram is heading the way of Facebook in terms of generational "coolness." I suspect it's just starting to hit a wall similar to Facebook did. TikTok is eating all of it.
Oh, I guess. I don't really think most people care about "coolness" these days though, if they gave half a shit about privacy or security then they wouldn't be wooed by software like TikTok. I'd imagine most of them use whatever is ubiquitous, kinda like how WhatsApp isn't glorious, but almost everyone outside the US uses it.
My impression of the younger Gen Z is that they don't really care about internet optics. For better/worse, many of them developed motor skills after they learned how to use YouTube, and it's not uncommon to find them using the sketchiest of ad-infested websites just to watch Johnny Bravo. If Millennials are characterized as narcissists empowered by technology, Gen Z is a wave of rats trained to check off the Terms and Conditions box for their cheese. In large part, this is Microsoft and Apple's fault for designing computers so simple that a baby can use them. In Frank Herbert's prescient words, "Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
All of this is to say, I think the average 14 year old would be equally excited to unbox an Oculus Quest and an iPhone. Even if they're largely different devices (even different price points), they're probably not concerning themselves with the ethical implications of owning a VR headset. Most of them will probably Google how to sideload Pavlov or VRChat on it within 15 minutes of turning it on. That's just my $0.02 though, perhaps things are different outside of the northeastern US.
I'd prefer that facebook just fade into obscurity, and also hopefully face some kind of consequence for the incalculable harm they caused the world along the way.
