metaverse: Why Keanu Reeves wants Facebook to have nothing to do with the ‘metaverse’

NEW DELHI: The Matrix trilogy star Keanu Reeves doesn’t want Facebook to have anything to do with the ‘metaverse’. The actor, who will be seen in the Matrix Resurrections soon, spoke about ‘metaverse’ in an interview with The Verge.
He said, “Can we just not have metaverse be invented by Facebook?’ which made host Alex Heath ask him, “not a fan?” Keanu replied that the concept of metaverse is way older and “I’m just like, come on man.”
When asked whether he thought that the metaverse everyone is talking about now is dystopian, with the tech of the future bringing everyone to a Matrix-like dystopia, Keanu said that “yeah, because you know it’s content creation… it’s economic creation, cryptocurrency, right?.”
As regards to cryptocurrency, Reeves revealed that a friend of his got some for him but he hasn’t done anything with it yet. So, he is maybe not against crypto or even the metaverse, but wants Facebook to keep out of it.
Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge that for Metaverse, “you can think about it as the successor to the mobile internet.” Facebook also somewhat hypocritically said sometime back that it wants to build the Metaverse responsibly. The company even changed its name to Meta.
As per Meta, the Metaverse is “a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you. You’ll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online — it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.”
Facebook has also said that the Metaverse isn’t a single product one company can build alone. “Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not. And it won’t be built overnight.”