About

Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse Avatar, also known as Mark Zuckerberg Avatar In Metaverse France and Spain, refers to a VR selfie taken by Mark Zuckerberg's avatar within Meta's Metaverse in front of CGI versions of the Eiffel Tower and La Sagrada Familia made to represent the Metaverse versions of Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain. The image was originally posted on Facebook in mid-2022 as a promotion for Horizon Worlds' expansion into new countries. Zuckerberg's post spread to Twitter and the rest of social media where it was mocked in memes, mostly due to how perceivably bad the build looked and how cringy Zuckerberg appeared by promoting it. Many compared the visuals to the Nintendo Wii Mii and Miiverse. Days later, Zuckerberg then updated his avatar and posted it on Instagram, proving to the critics that the render improved and was better than originally alluded. The update resulted in more memes and reactions on social media.

Origin

On August 16th, 2022, Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a selfie on Facebook^[1] he'd taken in the Metaverse, positioned in front of VR recreations of Paris' Eiffel Tower and Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia. He wrote in the image's caption, "👋🇫🇷🇪🇦 We're launching Horizon Worlds in France and Spain today! Looking forward to seeing people explore and build immersive worlds, and to bringing this to more countries soon." In one day, the Facebook post received roughly 103,000 reactions, 16,000 comments and 6,900 shares (shown below).

Spread

Later on August 16th, 2022, Twitter^[2] user ordinarythings tweeted Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse selfie, adding a critical caption to it that read, "Mark Zuckerberg launches Horizon Worlds in France and Spain with an eye-gougingly ugly VR selfie. Meta's metaverse ploy is surely dying in the dark." The tweet received roughly 21,800 likes in one day (shown below).

Twitter user ordinarythings' tweet also received roughly 1,500 quote retweets and over 570 replies in one day with many of them earning viral engagement. For instance, on August 16th, Twitter^[3] user lukebju19951 tweeted a reply that read, "Love how they perfectly captured the cold, soulless, and empty Zuckerborg corporate approved feeling," earning roughly 1,700 likes in one day (shown below, left). Later on August 16th, Twitter^[4] user lordbeef tweeted a QT that read, "In fortnite you can be goku with a shotgun," earning roughly 10,500 likes in one day (shown below, right).

In the evening of August 16th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user jrhennessy tweeted a screenshot of Zuckerberg's Facebook post, captioning it, "Looks great!" and earning roughly 27,000 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). Jrhennessy's tweet furthered the backlash Zuckerberg was facing for the selfie and the VR build that many thought was amateurish. For instance, on August 16th, Twitter^[6] user kevinroose quote retweeted jrhennessy's tweet, stating, "It's genuinely puzzling that Meta spent more than $10 billion on VR last year and the graphics in its flagship app still look worse than a 2008 Wii game." The QT received roughly 7,900 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Meme creators across platforms started to reference the Metaverse selfie going into August 2022, mostly poking fun at its build. For instance, on August 16th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user acemc89 tweeted a satirical redraw of the selfie, earning over 870 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). On August 17th, the Facebook^[8] page Epistemological Diarrhea sparkled with obstacles posted a meme that inserted Zuckerberg's Facebook post into a "The sign bears no relation to any reality whatsoever" template, earning over 240 reactions in less than a day (shown below, right).

Updated Mark Zuckerberg Metaverse Avatar

On August 19th, 2022, Zuckerberg posted to Instagram^[9] an updated version of his Metaverse avatar, as well as a new screenshot of a European setting within the Metaverse, both appearing to be better rendered. Zuckerberg relayed in the post's description, "I know the photo I posted earlier this week was pretty basic -- it was taken very quickly to celebrate a launch. The graphics in Horizon are capable of much more." Over the course of two days, the post received roughly 143,100 likes (shown below).

Roughly 10 minutes later on August 19th, Twitter^[10] user RMac18 posted two screenshots of Zuckerberg's Instagram post, captioning them, "Wow. Mark Zuckerberg basically got cyberbullied so much over his company’s metaverse graphics that he announced an update." The tweet received roughly 24,800 likes in two days (shown below).

Inspired by both Zuckerberg's original and RMac18's repost, meme creators started exploiting both the old and updated avatars in more memes continuing into August 2022. For instance, on August 19th, 2022, Twitter^[11] user lifebettergreen photoshopped both avatars onto Saturn Devouring His Son, earning roughly 5,900 likes in three days (shown below, left). Later on August 19th, the Twitter^[12] account of The Onion tweeted, "Mark Zuckerberg Worried His Metaverse Avatar Doesn’t Fully Capture How Inhuman He Looks," earning roughly 14,500 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References