Facebook's pivot to the Metaverse happened shortly after a major scandal which once again highlighted their intrusive and unsettling behaviors towards their users.

Their rebranding was a pretty disgusting tactic and I think it highlighted a basic delusion that Facebook has; they imagine that they are still welcome in the same way they were in 2010, and that they have enough social credibility to cash in on a new and more intrusive version of their old paradigm.

Their move was a bit like a narcissist who has been crowding your space for years, suddenly suggesting that maybe if you let him have even more access to your space, you'd start feeling better about the situation.

I think most people reacted predictably, with something akin to healthy revulsion and skepticism.

Trust matters. Facebook has far less than it used to.