Published: Sunday, Sep. 26, 2010
'The Face of Facebook'
The New Yorker, Sept. 20
Why does anyone post any personal information on their Facebook page?
After reading The New Yorker's recent profile of Facebook founder and Mark Zuckerberg, that question looms large.
Writer Jose Antonio Vargas digs deep into Zuckerberg's early exchanges in creating Facebook and comes up with this set of text messages while the wunderkind was at Harvard:
Zuck: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: just ask
Zuck: i have over 4000 emails, pictures addresses, sns
Friend: what? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: people just submitted it
Zuck: I don't know why
Zuck: they "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb f---s
Wow. That really makes me eager to share my life on Facebook. With friends like "Zuck," why is J. Edgar Hoover not on my friends list?
There are many times I fear The New Yorker is losing its edge, but Vargas' deep profile of Zuck is a compelling read. Much has been written about Zuckerberg, including a book, "The Accidental Billionaires," by Ben Mezrich. There's also a movie coming out in October about Zuck, written by Aaron Sorkin, titled "The Social Network."
Yet Vargas' piece is notable for his sweep, its intimacy and its fairness to Zuckerberg. Reading it, you get a sense of how Zuck uses Facebook to keep up with friends and colleagues, often disclosing revealing details about himself, such as the fact he likes to roast goats.
"Zuckerberg may seem like an over-sharer in the age of oversharing. But that's kind of the point," Vargas writes.
You'll also learn what Zuckerberg – dubbed "our new Caesar" by Vanity Fair recently – has in store for the future. These include new platforms that allow Facebook users to get recommendations on books, hotels, restaurants, movies and other entertainment based on recommendations by friends and others – kind of a Zagat guide put together by your best buddies.
Like so much on Facebook, this sounds irresistible – perhaps too much so. "Zuckerberg's ultimate goal is to create and dominate a different kind of Internet," Vargas writes.
Why would Internet users allow him to do this? As Zuck puts it, "They trust me."
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