Time Magazine Person of the Year: Mark Zuckerberg

[engine]

Time Magazine Person of the Year: Mark Zuckerberg

For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is TIME's 2010 Person of the Year. [time.com...]

[Alcoholico]

Pity, I voted for Assange. The story of Time is full of inaccuracies, for starters, Zuckerberg did not invent what the facebook is and of course he has not changed how I live my life, well maybe a bit, when asked I have to tell people I do not have and do not want a facebook account, thank you very much.

[jecasc]

Convincing 500 Millionen people to give up their privacy and handing over their personal life for full economic exploitation is definetly worth making him man of the year.

There's a sucker born every minute.

[mromero]

Dependency on FBook for business is dicey. As recent history has shown they can turn off your lights on a whim or an order / suggestion from a government. Appears to be a wimp-out on the part of Time....

[iamlost]

Gotta love marketing hype, especially when it is swallowed whole: 500 million accounts != 500 million individual entities.

Seems that 'Person of the Year' is about the only popular property left to Time. Sort of a ghost of past prominence.

[moTi]

i understand that it's the impact during the whole year. but the nomination of zuckerberg sounds totally lame in light of the recent turbulent events surrounding wikileaks. and it's not that it all started with cablegate. who cares about facebook these days?

[TinkyWinky]

#*$! - they trying to butter him up to buy a share?

Aside from the Privacy issues and the fact it's a copied idea - there are way more deserving people...

Hmm let's think :

Assange
Liu Xiaobo
Any one of the Chilean miners

for starters....

Hell I would choose Andres Iniesta for the World Cup winning goal rather than pick MZ.

Just my 2c

[lawman]

There was a time in my life many moons ago where I subscribed to everything from news mags to comic books. I can't remember when I stopped caring about who's ass the Hulk was beating or who Time named Person of the Year.

[edited by: lawman at 8:21 pm (utc) on Dec 15, 2010]

[brotherhood of LAN]

Without the hype of the 'facebook film' I'm sure it would have been someone else.

Fair play though, in our information age Facebook is a big name and sucks up millions (billions?) of man hours of peoples time.

Assange
Liu Xiaobo

Looking at past winners there are certainly a lot of political reasons for having the chosen winner...

[en.wikipedia.org...]

[jecasc]

If I had a facebook account I would now update my status to "is wondering what a boring year this must have been".

Or join the group, "Isn't it fracking awesome that M. Zuckerberg is person of the year and does this not mean that we all here on facebook are now persons of the year - probably not."

When you have nothing to do, do it on facebook.

[lexipixel]

Other notable TIME MAGAZINE MAN OF THE YEAR choices:

1938 - Adolph Hitler
1939 - Joseph Stalin (and again in 1942)
1971 - Richard Nixon
1979 - Ayatullah Khomeini

So Zuckerberg isn't the only "not so great person" to make the list.

Even "things" can make the list:

1982 - The Computer

...and in 2006, "YOU" were on the cover of TIME'S Person of The Year issue.

[JAB Creations]

Time Magazine is part of the mainstream "American" media which is totally monopolized by anti-American communists to misinform the American public so naturally I don't read it nor take anything anyone mentions of it serious. With a single exception from the people that lexipixel pointed out usually the propaganda promotes evil people and attempts character assassination against good people. It's those who disagree with the mainstream media and are void of using intentionally confusing gray language that can be considered potentially trustworthy as a source of news. Freedom is about responsibility, think for yourself because if you don't no one with good intentions for you, your family and your country will.

- John

[albo]

Yup, @lexipixel, yer right. Person of the Year isn't necessarily my definition of "great" person of the year. As @jecasc said, "There's a sucker born every minute," and the Zuckster became Person of the Year for finding the most Zuckers in a minute.

Even webmasters are paying attention to FB as they must to the Gorg. It's an advertising force, if you need $.

[yaix2]

Last time I checked the voting a few days ago, it was Assange who was at the top. But Time is probably not brave enough for that. Oh well.

[lorax]

Okay - I'll swim upstream on this. Not that I think there aren't better candidates but I do think the development of Facebook has changed lives and made a huge difference in the world.

1) the fact that Facebook users exchange over 1 billion messages per day is ... excuse me ... pretty significant.

2) the fact that there are over 500 million user on the Facebook is also very impressive. The population of the United States (as per the US Census of 2009 [google.com] was a little over 307 million.

3) Whether you like or hate him, Mark created a tool that offers us a different way to communicate using the web. People are connecting with old friends, classmates, even estranged family members because of how Facebook works. There is no other tool, not one, that has achieved this level of re-connection among people.

4) Facebook is an advertiser's dream in the making. It isn't polished but any medium that can boast over 700 billion minutes per month of active view time by it's users has a goldmine in it's hands.

Source: [facebook.com...]

And the creator of the Facebook idea? Mark Z. Is it on a par with a Nobel peace prize? Not in my book. But I do think Facebook has had and will have a huge impact on our online experience and anyone that says otherwise has their head in the sand.

You see, I don't think the criteria has anything to do with if the person is good or bad in our opinion. It has to do with their influence on our world. I believe the names that have appeared on the list have all had a huge impact on us regardless.

And... just for grins I've asked Time to explain their criteria for selection.

[lorax]

I just did a bit of research for comparison sake. According Neilson average American (not world wide but let's use the number anyhow) view time is 151 hours per month. According to Answers.com the number of people watching TV worldwide is on the order of 238,000,000. So the rough mathematics of this yields: 2.156 Trillion minutes per month of view time. Approximately 3 times more than Facebook view time.

That Facebook has achieved this amount of loyalty in less than 10 years and television has been around for the better part of 70 years is very telling.

Sources:
[articles.cnn.com...]
[wiki.answers.com...]

[rocker]

Winning TIME's Person of the Year and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee at McDonalds

[weeks]

I'm not quite as quick to dismiss this, but not for the same reasons as Lorax (although he makes several worthwhile points).

Today, more than ever, magazines such as Time are edited as consumer products. The cover is a package designed to sell, to build brand, to get the attention of the largest number of people as possible.

And "Person of the Year" is a way to do that. So, who would you pick to get the attention of the largest number of people.

It's tough these days. A industry article in recent years quoted the chief of People magazine as saying they were running out of real celebrities. That is, people who everyone knows and cares about.

Say that you're one of the editors. You get your bonuses on hitting single copy sales targets. It's time for "Person of the Year." It's easy: Select that person who the largest number of people are interested in, for better or for worse.

Someone of your team said, "Mark Zuckerberg."

Your job is to come up with a better idea that will sell magazines. I don't have a better idea.

Cher? Lady Gaga? Steve Jobs? Nah...

---

BTW:
Lawman earlier wrote this very insightful post here:

There was a time in my life many moons ago where I subscribed to everything from news mags to comic books. I can't remember when I stopped caring about who's ass the Hulk was beating or who Time named Person of the Year.

Which was soon abridged with:

[edited by: lawman at 8:21 pm (utc) on Dec 15, 2010]

That's right. The mod edited himself for UTC. Only on WW...

[lawman]

The mod edited himself for speeling. You may now consider yourself blessed with new insight. :)

[Brett_Tabke]

Geocities could have done it - TriPod could have done it - Angelfire could have done it - then there was Lycos and Excite; the list of those that "could have done it" is very long (including this site).

The difference between the functions of Facebook and that of Geocities is almost too insignificant to bother to talk about. However, the minor differences in format, tone, and simple function are the difference between the alsoruns in the dot com morgue, and a worldwide empire worth 10's of billions. The difference, is vision.

Mark Zuckerberg has held a vision and stuck to it since The Facebook launched. In the next year, it could pass a billion users. It is already the most visited site on the web. Of course he is a candidate for man of the year. No one in tech has executed a vision like this since Larry and Sergy, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. In fact, he reminds me a lot of Gates in his approaches, mannerisms and what people say about him. That is the highest compliment I could possibly pay any business man in the USA today.

The current tech bubble is completely because of the social media surge of Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Whether we like it or not, or if it bruises your sensibilities, Facebook is here to stay and the name Zuckerberg will be with us for alot of years to come.

We had the best year since 2007 for the business. Thanks Mark.

[lorax]

he reminds me a lot of Gates

ROFL - I knew there was someone he reminded me of and you hit it dead on!

But I think Geocities GUI sucked big time. FB's is much better.

[incrediBILL]

Geocities could have done it - they didn't. TriPod - angelfire - Lycos - Excite - etal.

huh? those were all crap, nothing on the scale of real social media like FB.

But I think Geocities GUI sucked big time. FB's is much better.

Agreed. it was a big joke and the only ones still left laughing are the guys that pawned it off on Yahoo

[James2]

So can I add Time Magazine's Man of the Year 2006 and the fact I invented Windows 7 to my CV?

[moTi]

contra!

the fact that Facebook users exchange over 1 billion messages per day is ... excuse me ... pretty significant.

1 billion messages of mostly pointless crap - pretty unsignificant.

the fact that there are over 500 million user on the Facebook is also very impressive.

500 million accounts != 500 million active users. pr drivel is less impressive.

Whether you like or hate him, Mark created a tool that offers us a different way to communicate using the web.

no, in terms of way of communication, facebook is just like any other tool that is out there since years. in fact, as for that matter, there is next to zero innovation in facebook.

People are connecting with old friends, classmates, even estranged family members because of how Facebook works. There is no other tool, not one, that has achieved this level of re-connection among people.

not this level, but there are tons of other networks in the world on which people are interconnecting.

Facebook is an advertiser's dream in the making.

facebook is and will be an advertiser's nightmare. social media is one of the most inappropriate advertising channels out there. you better reach out to people who are in active buying mode, not hold billboards between people who are occupied with conversation. facebook is utterly underperforming for most of the marketers with ridiculously low conversion rates.

Facebook has had and will have a huge impact on our online experience

not for me. and not for many people i know.

It has to do with their influence on our world.

did you ever have a look at the distribution of unique facebook users? for sure, facebook has indeed managed to occupy the brains of most american users. but it really is far less important in most other countries. for example, well below a third in my age category use facebook. only a few of my former classmates are there. that makes facebook largely unusable for reconnecting purposes. as well as in most other countries by now, the numbers of real active users aren't increasing for some time now. meanwhile facebook is on its peak.

so to say that facebook has taken over the world or influenced daily communication habits for all of us is wrong. right, it has changed the world - but only for a minority of people. compared to the u.s., it is much less significant in other parts of the world.

[edited by: lawman at 11:45 am (utc) on Dec 16, 2010]

[StoutFiles]

Zuckerburg won this because of the Facebook movie and because Assange votes weren't counted. It's not like Facebook was any less popular in 2009.

[anshul]

Does Facebook helps anyone personally and really.. rather than sucking in the time that can be used for something better?

But people do advertise on Facebook, they create business and promotion pages.

Personally, I still love to watch television and radio.. I would still wonder how come PC can be a real media connection rather than it is for job and research, for some productivity thing or for doing some other things like writing an academic record or a resume or for finding some someone's address or piece of information online or e-mailing photos and a message to family and friends.

Well.. Facebook can be a platform for finding information.
So any person can create a fake account there and see if it helps out for anything.

[J_RaD]

facebook is and will be an advertiser's nightmare. social media is one of the most inappropriate advertising channels out there. you better reach out to people who are in active buying mode, not hold billboards between people who are occupied with conversation. facebook is utterly underperforming for most of the marketers with ridiculously low conversion rates.

yes yes yesssssssss, i've used it and done it and it sucks.

but that still doesn't stop all those "people" out there talking up their "social media marketing" techniques that are racking in cash and its the next big online marketing trend! To me those people are trying to get you to write them a check cause that is how they REALLY make their money, not eatting their own dog food.

[Brett_Tabke]

> Does Facebook helps anyone personally and really

I have family all over the country - friends around the world. Only facebook keeps me connected to many of them through status updates and pictures. I reconnected with an old friend from college. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Ummm, ya, Facebook book is an outstanding social tool.

[ChanandlerBong]

can we stop saying "500 million users". It's "500 million accounts"...very different thing.

I was at a dinner last month and the 8 people there that used FB accounted for 21 accounts between them, mostly to garner FarmVille and Pet Society bonuses, gifts, lost sheep, whatever.

I'd be surprised if there were many more than 250-300m actual users on FB.

[J_RaD]

I reconnected with an old friend from college. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Ummm, ya, Facebook book is an outstanding social tool.

its an outstanding tool for people that use it as such, most people join and get caught up in it. 90%(out of air figure) of the users get caught up in it and it detracts from their lives and brings negative things to the table that would have never got there otherwise. People aren't good at filtering emotions, and old people and other peoples problems are just 1 click away.