February 16, 2022

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants his employees to call each other 'Metamates'...."

"'Metamates' will replace 'Facebookers'.... 'Now is the right time to update our values and our cultural operating system,' Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page after announcing the change during a company-wide staff meeting Tuesday...."

From "Zuckerberg’s new ‘Metamates’ nickname mocked by Facebook employees" (NY Post). 

That Post article quotes "quips" at Twitter, but nothing is actually funny. What the hell is the difference — Facebookers or Metamates? Is one stupider than the other? To my ear Facebookers is worse because it sounds like "face boogers," but Metamates is bad because it seems like you're in a marital relationship (unless you keep thinking that the company is a ship upon the ocean and it's more of an "ahoy, mates" kind of thing).

73 comments:

hugh42 said...

Metanes

tim in vermont said...

Catamites is what he really means.

Limited blogger said...

kinda rolls off the tongue

Kevin said...

What the hell is the difference — Facebookers or Metamates?

FaceWookies would have been a better choice.

Kevin said...

From "Zuckerberg’s new ‘Metamates’ nickname mocked by Facebook employees" (NY Post).

They should merge this with the pronoun policy to insulate it from mockability. Henceforth, your pronouns would be expressed as:

MetaHe
MetaShe
MetaHim
MetaHer
MetaXe
MetaXer
MetaThey
MetaThem

Mr Wibble said...

A comment I've read on twitter that I like is that many of these tech folks, in previous generations, would have been cult leaders.

Leland said...

What's wrong with Comrade?

stutefish said...

Makes sense that they'd want to phase out Facebook-related signifiers, but... "metamates"? That just sounds like the next level of Playboy Playmates. Should have at least tried "metatrons". The "tron" evokes electronics, technical stuff, the future. Plus also the employees are in a sense mouthpieces of a godlike persona.

John henry said...

Or "G'Day,metamate!"

gspencer said...

"Comrade" would be more on point.

Michael K said...

How about "Zuckerborgs?"

tcrosse said...

Break out the Metamucil.

Michael said...

.
Zuckersuckers

PM said...

The Metamob ought to be known as Metamakers.

Milo Minderbinder said...

What a soul-crushing place to have to work.

Freeman Hunt said...

Bleh. They tell you what to call each other? Easy to come up with a few names for anyone who would try to do that.

ga6 said...

His mom must have been watching The Love Boat while she was carrying him. He does not know it but this is just a cry for help. His subconscious wants to go back to the womb.

Owen said...

Meat-mates: most meet that they met at Meta

ga6 said...

Or maybe mom watching "Gilligan's Island" and zuk (he/him/her/maybe) beleives his true self is Ginger, while in reality he looks like an offspring of Gilligan.

Dave Begley said...

What a dork.

Temujin said...

What happens when 15 year old mentalities inside of 30 and 40 year old bodies run large companies.

Ugh. How could any thinking adult with any self-regard want to be anywhere near that brand?

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

Should be meta-bros and meta-babes, and each person can pick the one that suits them best.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

unless you keep thinking that the company is a ship upon the ocean and it's more of an "ahoy, mates" kind of thing

I suspect it is more like the company is a prison and the people you work with are like cell-mates

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Drop box mule-mates.

tim maguire said...

Metamies.

Sounds like the kind of vapid stupidity corporations would normally pay a focus group 7 figures to come up with.

effinayright said...

Number One item on the company cafeteria menu: Metamucil.

Josephbleau said...

I think you could plot a good syfy novel around metamate. Some gratuitous mental hands off sex. Partition the cloud into heavens 1 thru 7 for mass "joinings."

Static Ping said...

Not a cult leader.

Bonkti said...

Vitametavegamins

cassandra lite said...

Metamucil.

Jim at said...

At first glance, I saw 'meatheads.'

Probably closer to the mark.

rhhardin said...

Rousseau discovered virtual sex first.

DanTheMan said...

I agree with some others on this thread... in the interest of time, just skip ahead to "comrades" and be done with it.
Z can then call himself "Fearless Leader"...

retail lawyer said...

Can you imagine what it must be like to be a normal person working at Meta?

Jersey Fled said...

Sheesh! Who wants to be called a Metamate? Even my spell checker doesn't like it.

c365 said...

I prefer Metapals. The darkside of Metapals will refer to themselves as Metabros.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Zuckerbotters.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Is a "metamate" something you put in your coffee?

Humperdink said...

Betamates

Coconuss Network said...

i think *marmites* is more apt given their $200 billion loss.
are we talking about bread or beds?? metamates is not everyone's game changer.
https://fortune.com/2022/02/02/facebook-lost-200-billion-in-market-value-earnings/

Amy said...

This is the kind of things staffers comply with outwardly and roll their eyes inwardly.

God of the Sea People said...

Metamates is just “teammates” with the letters shuffled around

BarrySanders20 said...

Pronounce it in Spanish: Me-tah'-ma-tays.

Yancey Ward said...

I am just going to continue to call them turds.

Yancey Ward said...

Leland, at 11:47 wins the thread.

Leland said...

Meta is just the "Titanic" with the deck chairs shuffled around

Yancey Ward said...

Zucktards is pretty good, too.

rightguy said...

I work with some contemporaries of Zuck and lot of them have spent staggering percentages of their lives playing video games. Game boys. Their ignorance of history, politics, any knowledge present only in books, etc. is equally staggering. My guess is that our tech oligarchs are a similar ilk.

Kevin said...

Since they are the primary company in the Metasphere, why not Primates?

gilbar said...

but Metamates is bad because it seems like you're in a marital relationship

at least, he's not (yet) demanding that they call each other "zucker f*ckers"

gilbar said...

Mr Wibble said...
A comment I've read on twitter that I like is that many of these tech folks, are cult leaders
fify!

effinayright said...

retail lawyer said...
Can you imagine what it must be like to be a normal person working at Meta?
**************
I can't imagine any normal person working at Meta in the first place.

madAsHell said...

They've lost sight of their product.

This is the petty little heads in HR trying to build Team Spirit.....because they've lost sight of their product, and they have too many employees.

Lay-offs are soon to follow.

madAsHell said...

Lay-offs......that won't happen!!!

It's just that your paycheck..........will become very Meta!!

Ann Althouse said...

I wonder how many of us instinctively feel that we want to see Facebook/Meta fail. I mean, I don't really care. Why should I? And yet I feel myself rooting against them. Why am I expending any mental energy being against them? And yet I do.

Gerda Sprinchorn said...

Mandatory whimsy.

Bob Boyd said...

Anyone who goes around calling people their Metamates has a very high likelihood of being pantsed.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

I wonder how many of us instinctively feel that we want to see Facebook/Meta fail. I mean, I don't really care. Why should I? And yet I feel myself rooting against them. Why am I expending any mental energy being against them? And yet I do.

Because of FB's hubris, especially Zuckerbot's hubris.

Howard said...

This will prop up the stock price

Joe Smith said...

So if you work there, can you mate in the office?

It's kind of in the name...

Paul A. Mapes said...

What's wrong with just plain old "comrade"? It would kind of get these folks in tune with the Big Tech spirit.

Joanne Jacobs said...

Metastasizers

Leland said...

Instinctively? Probably so. I use FB, and I've been using Oculus long before it was acquired by FB. I don't necessarily want those things to fail. But there is something about watching a company that so righteously believe in whatever it is doing, and that thing their doing does nothing for you, stumble and fail. It sort of validates your original sense of not being attracted by whatever they thought so righteous. I feel the same about Disney acquiring brands I used to love and then destroying them. Except I'm even more fascinated by Disney's ability to destroy loved brands (including its own original) so thoroughly.

retail lawyer said...

Ann, you sort of want to see Meta fail because you like your world and have enjoyed your life. Yesterday's WSJ had a story about the return of students to San Jose State, and about how they are afraid to talk to each other now. They eat alone, walk alone, live alone, but stare at the phone. One student said he was too inhibited to speak to anyone without having met them through social media first.

Then there is the problem of girls being mean to other girls and their rapidly declining mental health. A professor said the effects of all this will be pronounced in 30 years. Facebook is evil and creepy, thats why right minded people want it to fail.

Yancey Ward said...

Not bad, JoAnne!

Ceciliahere said...

Mark Zuckerberg is a real pain in the ass.

catter said...

David Brent suggested the term.

Ralfy, the whisky reviewer, opens each session by greeting his audience with a string of rhymed, alliterating, or otherwise cute expressions for whisky lovers. Maltmates is a staple item.

Some people like to believe that they're clever at coining phrases. The temptation for someone like that, given the power to force employees to use their inventions, could be hard to resist.

Iman said...

Metamooks

Bunkypotatohead said...

Did the employees actually refer to themselves as Facebookers previously? That's pretty cringe inducing right there.

cf said...

michael K for the win:

"Zuckerborgs"

Kirk Parker said...

Althouse @5:03pm:

You want "Meta" to fail because, ultimately, it is profoundly anti-human. You may have trouble coming up with clear explanations of why it is, and might even have trouble convincing yourself that it is so... But sometimes one's innate / instinctive reactions really are correct.

Kirk Parker said...

I mean, consider the difference between:

"We provide a no-cost way for people to share text, photos, and videos with others", which is an accurate-enough rendition of what a lot of people use FB for -- or think they do, at any rate --

with whatever grandiose bullshit is being spouted about the MetaVerse.

JAORE said...

First thought at the term:

I metamate at a bar outside Oakland in 2014. Can't recall her name, or much about her appearance. Left town the next morning. It was unreal.