At Harvard University Mark Zuckerberg took an Art History module on paintings of Emperor Augustus. Zuckerberg had failed to revise for the module’s exam and appeared destined to fail. Rather than taking the undergraduate strategy of putting in an ‘all-nighter’ he had a bigger idea. He built an online platform, similar to Google Docs, where all of his course members could pool their ideas. Not only did Zuckerberg succeed in the exam, but all his classmates achieved the highest marks the tutor had ever seen. Following this instance, Zuckerberg continued to use technology to build an image of an emperor – an emperor for the 21st century.
Zuckerberg created a company called Facebook. This business is worth over $300 billion dollars. Through his acquisition of both Instagram and Whatsapp Zuckerberg has become the most powerful individual in the world of Social Media. While fellow modern emperors, Bezos and Musk, choose to portray themselves as superheroes, Zuckerberg aims to retain the youthful optimism of an undergraduate, dressed for every occasion in a t-shirt and jeans. Do not be fooled by his rags. The man is a genius with a sharp vision for Facebook’s role in the future.
Background
Mark Zuckerberg was born a prince. Raised in White Plains New York he was the object of adoration for both his Mother and Father. During his 2017 speech at Harvard, Zuckerberg claimed his upbringing was key to the founding of Facebook because he was given the support to teach himself C plus plus code. Zuckerberg was a coding prodigy. At home, he created a programme called Zucknet an early group messenger platform that allowed the family to communicate online. At Exeter Academy, he built a programme called Synapse which predicted people’s music tastes based on certain data.
Having gone to Harvard to study Psychology and Computer Science Zuckerberg’s career was almost short-lived. The programming prodigy got into trouble for creating a website called Facemash which allowed people to rank their fellow students based on their good looks. The University took action against Zuckerberg, who in turn called his parents to ‘pack away my things’ fearing immediate expulsion. No charges were pressed against him, however, the pressure forced him to ask out his, now wife, Priscilla Chan, which according to the Facebook founder was the ‘most important thing’ he ‘built’ at Harvard.
In 2004 he was recruited by the Winklevoss twins, two Olympian rowers, looking to build a site called Harvard Connection; an online space, similar to Facebook, where Harvard alumni could stay in touch. Neither of the Twins knew how to code and it was up to Zuckerberg to do all the building. During the project, Zuckerberg continued to delay the project whilst secretly working on his own social network called The Facebook. Later the Winklevoss Twins would sue over plagiarism winning some $300 million dollars.
Facebook’s rise to fame was meteoric. After Harvard, Zuckerberg met Sean Parker, a co-founder of Napster, who then introduced him to the circles of Silicon Valley who were already making revolutionary changes on the internet. Parker taught Zuckerberg how to run a business. He showed him how to talk, how to lead and how to party. Parker believed that Zuckerberg had to both run and become the face of Facebook. The social media platform immediately won favour amongst students around America and soon became popular with the masses on the web, as the photo tagging tool made Facebook the dominant online format to connect and share photos.
2006 provided the greatest directive energy towards Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of Facebook. Following a rejected bid of $1 billion dollars from Yahoo, many people at left the company questioning Zuckerberg’s leadership. According to the Facebook founder, he felt that he had not yet ‘built Facebook to what he wanted it to be’. From this moment on he began to claim that Facebook’s purpose was to ‘connect the world’. A month after turning down the bid Facebook launched the Newsfeed, allowing different Facebook members to view their friend’s activities on a live homepage, creating, in essence, a newspaper for people’s social network connections.
In 2006 there were some 12 million people on Facebook. By 2010 Facebook had around 140 million users and was subject to a Golden Globe-winning film called The Social Network based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg. In 2012 Zuckerberg concentrated his monopoly on the photography-based social media companies, after purchasing rival photography site Instagram for $1 billion dollars. Today in 2017 there are over a billion people on Facebook. Zuckerberg says his next mission is to turn that number into 2 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Dream
Talking about the beginnings of Facebook Zuckerberg said ‘when we began this idea it was not controversial’. Today Facebook is a hugely volatile subject. The social media platform is possibly the world’s most powerful vehicle for change. Today Facebook has been accredited with the election of Barack Obama, the rise of Far Right nationalism, and a rising mental health epidemic – all at the same time. Such is the power of Facebook that the philosophy of the company is of the utmost importance to all societies around the world. Facebook has become what Foucault would describe as a ‘discursive instrument’ constructing the unconscious views of wider society. Facebook’s philosophy demonstrates how far the company feel responsible for the happenings online.
Within the company Facebook used to adhere to the experimental method of ‘move fast break things’, a phrase Zuckerberg has since Facebook’s success changed to ‘move fast within stable infrastructure’. This philosophy adheres to the experimental method of science. A/B testing is applied by the company’s computer scientists to devise the website’s most successful formula’s. This constitutes intermittently testing different web designs with different Facebook users recording and analysing how different formats change people’s experience of Facebook. These computer scientists are experimenting with ways to seduce their customers to spend longer and longer amounts of time on Facebook. Zuckerberg has also been known to encourage creativity through all night hackathons, in which employees will hack to the early hours of the morning on a project totally unrelated to what they are working on. Facebook has the DNA of Zuckerberg’s post-Harvard experiences in Silicon Valley pumping through its veins, and in many respects seems totally focussed on its role as a technology company.
To the wider public, Zuckerberg preaches how Facebook represents a reflection of our community, or in other words ‘connecting the world’. The Facebook founder frames Social Media in the same photo as the Church, arguing that while the ‘purpose that came from your job or church… has been disconnected’ Facebook will reconnect this sense of purpose. Zuckerberg therefore suggests that ‘connecting’ with people establishes a community. This community, in turn, creates a sense of purpose, and therefore, a global community can be created through connecting everyone on Facebook. Where the emperors of the 19th century sought mass connection through railways, the 21st-century emperor seeks worldwide global connection.
Writing in the Financial Times Shrimsley accuses Zuckerberg of conning people, claiming ‘one of the best signifiers of a phoney religion is where its commercial interests seem a little too well aligned with its moral mission’. Rather than creating a community Shrimsley believes that Zuckerberg’s goals are largely financial claiming the company, worth $300 billion dollars, has a ‘sole ambition’ of ‘seeing you organising your life on the platform’.
Nevertheless, in February 2017 Zuckerberg set five targets for how Facebook could improve communities. Firstly, it helped support communities through communication. Secondly, it helped the safety of the community, allowing people to check in as safe following terrorist attacks. Thirdly, it helped educate communities with online learning resources. Fourthly, increasing political engagement, through encouraging people online to vote on polling day and also lobbying for online voting. Fifthly, creating a space that is inclusive for everybody, allowing people to find friends with sympathetic outlooks.
Confronting Political Issues
Facebook has been criticised for failing to take responsibility for what happens on the Website. While the company has been run like a Silicon Valley startup its impact has impacted the world durchdringend. Zuckerberg’s Empire continues to expand. Yet from Scotland to Syria pockets of people are voicing dissent towards the platform.
Facebook has been criticised for the dissemination of fake news stories. Following recent shootings in Las Vegas and Texas, conspiracy theories gained huge momentum on the social media platform. In response to similar criticisms Zuckerberg gave a statement of extraordinary naivety claiming:
‘if you become less likely to share a story after reading it that’s a good sign the headline was sensational. If you’re more likely to share a story after reading it, that’s often a sign of good in-depth content.’
In this statement, Zuckerberg immediately assumes that because he himself is not attracted to sensationalist news, neither are the 1 billion people on Facebook. Two examples demonstrate that ‘sensationalist news’ aside from Facebook is extraordinarily popular and continually subject to ‘reposting’.
Firstly, The Daily Mail is the most popular UK media site in Britain, with much of its success based on an array of sensational title’s accompanied with sensational photo’s, such as ‘Charlotte Crosby flaunts her peachy derriere’. Secondly, Trump’s twitter page is popular because of the sensationalist style it is written in. For instance, on the topic of North Korea, Trump posted a tweet saying ‘Anyone who doubts the strength or determination of the U.S should look to our past….and you will doubt it no longer’. This exhibits a President of the United States offer a sensationalist threat to both draw populist support as well as intimidate North Korean foreign policy.
Sensationalism is one of the most popular styles on the internet and feels native to Social Media. Consequently, Zuckerberg’s correlation between reposting and the authority of news stories is completely unfounded and wrong, suggesting that Facebook is either choosing to mislead or ignore that the platform is fertile soil for sensationalism. This highlights the most serious criticism volleyed at the emperor, that he fails to take responsibility for the fact that his company is no longer just a tech company, and thus fails to meet realities pressing requirements.
Mark Zuckerberg has built the world’s largest Social Media empire. He owns the most powerful machinery in the digital world. While he claims he is driving the machine towards ‘connecting the world’ and strengthening communities, there are still severe problems with the Social Media platform that Facebook are taking little or no responsibility for. When Zuckerberg created the Facebook his idea was to build a tech company. Today Facebook is its own ecosystem and whether Facebook like it or not they will be held responsible for what goes on on the website.
09 Nov 17
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