3 ms·

I just saw it as use VR to reconnect with old friends who aren’t part of your day-to-day physical life any longer. But it seems like that take is a lot less cy

I just saw it as use VR to reconnect with old friends who aren’t part of your day-to-day physical life any longer. But it seems like that take is a lot less cynical than most other commenters on HN.

cmehdy 5y ago
What's the point of being a life-sized plush in that context? Why is it that you're both a human giving concerts and a toy to indicate directions to people passing by? Why include a scene about getting yourself trash-compacted in a state of anhedonia? I'm completely likely to be more cynical than your average person out there since due to personal mental health issues, however none of the questions I just asked seem to have any connection at all with the blindly optimistic take you seem to be having. Not to mention that Facebook already exists for the purpose you indicated and is even owned by the same people. Presumably Mr Dog Plushie could have had the chance to reconnect with old friends already there, yet instead he was about to literally trash himself and die. How is that not alarming as hell?
jasonhansel 5y ago
I think it's because the ad ignores the obvious fact that the puppet's life at the end--when it can only connect to its friends in VR--is obviously so much worse than its life at the start of the commercial, when it can perform in real life. The ad presents the Metaverse as an "upgrade" from real life, but it seems from the ad that the Metaverse is only an improvement after your life has gone seriously downhill.
nyokodo 5y ago
> reconnect with old friends When I’m shown an anthropomorphized dog puppet thrown away, dropped haphazardly from a truck, put into a trash compactor, and then treated like a mannequin I’m not being primed to think “reconnect” with anyone. This is a weird depiction of despair to which Meta is the drug to pretend to escape.

3 ms·

I just saw it as use VR to reconnect with old friends who aren’t part of your day-to-day physical life any longer. But it seems like that take is a lot less cy

by paulcole 5y ago

cmehdy 5y ago
What's the point of being a life-sized plush in that context? Why is it that you're both a human giving concerts and a toy to indicate directions to people passing by? Why include a scene about getting yourself trash-compacted in a state of anhedonia? I'm completely likely to be more cynical than your average person out there since due to personal mental health issues, however none of the questions I just asked seem to have any connection at all with the blindly optimistic take you seem to be having. Not to mention that Facebook already exists for the purpose you indicated and is even owned by the same people. Presumably Mr Dog Plushie could have had the chance to reconnect with old friends already there, yet instead he was about to literally trash himself and die. How is that not alarming as hell?
jasonhansel 5y ago
I think it's because the ad ignores the obvious fact that the puppet's life at the end--when it can only connect to its friends in VR--is obviously so much worse than its life at the start of the commercial, when it can perform in real life. The ad presents the Metaverse as an "upgrade" from real life, but it seems from the ad that the Metaverse is only an improvement after your life has gone seriously downhill.
nyokodo 5y ago
> reconnect with old friends When I’m shown an anthropomorphized dog puppet thrown away, dropped haphazardly from a truck, put into a trash compactor, and then treated like a mannequin I’m not being primed to think “reconnect” with anyone. This is a weird depiction of despair to which Meta is the drug to pretend to escape.