
“I’m happy to lose £10m by quitting Facebook,” was the statement last week from Lush’s chief executive, Mark Constantine as he declared his company would no longer invest resources in platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The decision was made following suggestions by a whistleblower, a former member of Facebook’s integrity team, that the company puts profits before efforts to fight hate speech and misinformation on its platform. For years the impact of social media sites such as Instagram have been highlighted for having a negative impact on teenagers’ mental health.
As the world edges towards an existence in the metaverse, a crack (a ravine, an abyss) is appearing between those who believe heightened digital life will be good for humanity, and those who think it won’t. Critics argue that the metaverse will create an even more stark economic division (because the cost of the necessary hardware will automatically exclude huge factions of the population), and others warn that it’ll burn us up in an inferno of internet addiction, depression, and emotional distance from everything that makes us feel alive.
Whether you’re all for it, or you’re approaching the concept with the same wariness that Socrates had when everyone started learning how to write, the…