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Mark Zuckerberg

The Oscar nominated movie , The Social Network, has generated a lot of interest in the man behind the ‘face’(book), Mark Zuckerberg. Here’s my take on the whiz kid and his brain child.
When I read that the Time Magazine had chosen Zuckerberg as the person of the yr’ 2010 ahead of Julian Assange, I was quite surprised, especially coming as it did right in the midst of the WikiLeaks storm.
And I won’t claim that I was much in agreement with Time or it’s readers…
The reason being, wasn’t Wikileaks’ fearless whistle blower act of far greater social relevance?
But the movie, which portrays it’s protagonist in black, white as well as the many different hues of gray, provoked me to peer deeper into the making of Facebook, and so I resorted to ‘Google’, the only encyclopedia known to my generation!
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, born 14th May, 1984, caught my attention thanks to the following :
As stated by Jesse Eisenberg who essays Mark’s character in the movie, Zuckerberg wanted, “to take the entire social experience of college and put it on the internet!” And though the makers of the movie claim that it is only about 40% accurate, yet I’m inclined to think and thus will presume that this indeed was the original motive.
A lot has been said about whether this social networking business is a boon or a bane, and arguments on both sides carry substantial credence.
But I’m not getting into it!
Because what Zuckerberg set out to do, he did … and more!
Facebook today connects not only friends and college mates, it’s a link between families scattered all over the globe, it’s what has reduced distances to a mere click. So if Google is the modern encyclopedia, then Facebook is the substitute for the ‘kitty-parties’ from the days of yore. It’s got the gossip, the match making, the conversation, the games and well, a lot more, each day. But the food…?!!!
In fact, a lot of what we do in our lives is immediately registered on FB, and it seems to me that we do a lot of what we do, just to share it on FB.
On a recent trip with my class, my friend wanted a picture to be taken, just so she could “put it up on Facebook”!
This well sums up, for me, this phenomenon called Facebook!
… And of course, best of all, "it’s free... and(like the homepage says) always will be"!!!
That money was never on this young billionaire’s agenda is evident, less than a mere 10% of a Facebook page is lent to advertising, far less than other sites on the internet. And amongst other philanthropic efforts, he’s also signed on to The Giving Pledge. To make a billion is definitely an easy task when compared to parting with some of it, and for this alone, Mr. Zuckerberg you have a huge chunk of my admiration!
It seems that it’s his single minded determination that’s taken him to the ‘500 million + friends and a few enemies,’ and Facebook to every nook of this globe ( as a law intern in the movie suggests, that even in countries where roads are scant, Facebook has managed to blaze it’s trail!)
And at age 26 if you can find yourself seated next to Barack Obama at an official dinner in the heart of Silicon Valley , whilst the only other man had to create the ipod, iphone, imac and the ipad to say “ ‘i’ sat next to Obama”, is in itself a tribute to the heights the sweatshirt clad Harvard dropout has attained.
I won’t call him a pioneer or a visionary, but Mark Zuckerberg just got the entire world to ‘Facebook’ him!!!
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