Facebook is in on a mission to change itself, which is so, well, “meta.” Facebook parent company Meta will no longer use the term News Feed to describe the content users see queued up for them when they log into the app — that feature now will just be called Feed.
The semantic change reflects a simplification in terminology. It also speaks to the problems that attach themselves to anything called News in the current frenzied media environment, where “fake news” has become an effective rallying cry for people who don’t want to privilege facts. Facebook has dedicated increased resources to fighting disinformation campaigns from thriving on its platform — and it’s smartly sensitive about what gets called news.
Who will be executing this and other changes at Meta? Why, Metamates, of course. (The changes keep coming.) What are Metamates? Metamates is the new Meta-sanctioned name for company employees, roughly the equivalent of Disney’s Imagineers. On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed the Metamates — more than 70,000 of them — that they were now Metamates.
The name is meant to illustrate the refreshed values, togetherness and priorities of the company. “Meta, Metamates, Me” is a reference to the Navy phrase “Ship, shipmate, self.” In other words, in a storm, save first the ship (Meta), then your shipmates (Metamates), and then yourself (lone employee, singular Metamate).
“It’s about the sense of responsibility we have for our collective success and to each other as teammates. It’s about taking care of our company and each other,” Zuckerberg wrote in a long note he publicly shared on Meta (embedded below) , as they “build the next chapter of our company.” The post has quickly amassed more than 4,000 comments.
