Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg deserves to be Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” but Steve Jobs doesn’t? Seriously?
What did Mark Zuckerberg do this year that was so special? He was the subject of a feature film that was released in October. Apparently that’s enough to be named Time’s “Person of the Year.”
A Nobel Peace Prize must be right around the corner for Zuckerberg.
One question: Who’s done more to change the world, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg?
All in all, though, Steve Jobs lucked out. If he was named POTY, he’d be getting the backlash instead of Zuckerberg. After all, anybody with at least half a brain can name 10+ people who “for better or for worse” have done more “to influence the events of the year” than Zuckerberg or, for that matter, Jobs.
Henry Luce must be spinning in his grave. TIME Magazine no longer has the collective balls necessary to name a Hilter POTY as they rightly did in 1938. TIME needs to change their criteria for POTY to “someone, some group, or something our vapid, shallow, cowardly editors think will sell the most units this week.”
TIME Magazine is a joke.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
MacDailyNews Note: The final results of TIME’s 2010 Person of the Year Reader’s Poll, Top 15:
(Rank. Name – Avg. Rating, Total Votes)
1. Julian Assange – 92, 382026
2. Recep Tayyip Erdogan – 80, 233640
3. Lady Gaga – 70, 146378
4. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert – 81, 78145
5. Glenn Beck – 28, 91746
6. Barack Obama – 58, 27478
7. Steve Jobs – 61, 24810
8. The Chilean Miners – 47, 29124
9. The Unemployed American – 66, 19605
10. Mark Zuckerberg – 52, 18353
11. Liu Xiaobo – 68, 12962
12. Sarah Palin – 28, 30787
13. David Cameron – 31, 22596
14. Hu Jintao – 49, 12046
15. Robert Gates – 41, 13142
My daughter says about zuck getting POY:
“They must have changed their criteria for person of the year, or else secretly changed the award title to “most vile, abhorrent, douche-nozzle-like person to grace the interwebs” without letting anybody in on the joke.”
absolutely agree.
Zuckerberg got publicity for two things this year, A movie which he didn’t approve of, and donating $100 million to New Jersey Schools(after watching the Jersey shore, you can see why they were the first of his generosity).
Other than that Steve Jobs year in, year out has taken his company to new record levels financially, introduced ground breaking game changing devices, and kept his philanthropy work on the hush(unlike some people spoken of) It’s just a shame that Steve jobs the man who is responsible for the great devices that log into facebook doesn’t get the nod this year. The damn iPad was worthy alone. Watch the year Verizon gets the iPhone is the year he gets POTY.
Time magazine is and always has been a joke. This just confirms it.
Every time I see some undeserving SOB named Tim’s person of the year, I remember that they once named Hitler their POY.
Time has done SJ a favour by sparing his mug on their joke of a magazine. I’m sure, SJ is just as relieved. I so wish MDN ignored this joke and not give the Time non-story a second glance.
POY is not an endorsement. . . . It would have to called “Best” or “Nicest”, or “Most Valuable” Person of the Year for that. As is pointed out, (whether by hook or crook) 20% of the entire world’s population is now on Facebook. That’s equal to the world’s great religions, though I don’t think it’s killed nearly as many people.
I don’t think Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg should get any recognition. He stole the idea of Facebook and in my book a criminal. It fails right in there with Microsoft copying Mac OS and now Google copying IOS. But a little worse, he ripped the idea from its creators and ran with it. And now he is being praised for it?
Time is saving Job’s picture for the year that Microsoft goes to an over the counter stock ( less than $1.00), 2020?
I quit keeping up with Time’s DOA, POS, POY, a few years back when they put that mirror thingy on the front cover.. “YOU, you’re person of the year! Get it?!..” (In reference to explosion of user generated online video content.)
I cancelled my subscription a few years ago. The only thing I miss about it were the pretentious art articles…that used to ooze snobbery like there was no tomorrow.
Now I have to ’emote’ on my own.
Mistake of Year 2010- me buying the $5 Time Magazine iPad edition in April. What was I thinking?
Time Magazine = New York Times = Washington Post = Manchester Guardian = Newsweek = Boston Globe = Irrelevancies.
Period. Fit only for the bottom of bird cages. (My apologies to all birds everywhere.)
@Steve Jack,
Let Henry Luce spin in his grave – he was a member of “The Brotherhood of Death” aka “Skull and Bones.”
@Randian- you hit the nail right on the head. Nothing but rags, good for shredding and letting hamsters loose on them. You can add People and Star to that list as well.
Like the nickname, by the way. Still waiting for Atlas to shrug…
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@ AppleJack – 20% is incorrect – it is closer to 10% of the world’s population – about half a billion (500,000,000) or so on FaceBook. The world is closing in on 7 billion total… 6.88 according to the latest U.N. census info.
Time has never been my magazine of the year.
Zuckerburg as Person of the Year is an ignorant, shortsighted, publicity-motivated disgrace.
Period.
Well, Adolph Hitler was man of the year. Why not Zuckerberg?
——RM
Maybe they are waiting for “Person of the Decade”?
This gets me going on my problem with POTY… “Biggest impact”? That’s garbage. It’s WAY EASIER to screw things up than it is to make them better. A “Person of the Year” should be someone who improved things, not just had an impact.
Like, say.. Steve Jobs?
I’m so tired of the Facebook hype….
Honestly, Facebook doesn’t bring much into the technology field. It’s a MEDIA phenomena. You might even consider it a social phenomena. But it brings nothing to actually advancing human race.
As an old-time developer and a material witness of the personal computer revolution, I feel insulted when I see the movie industry making a movie about Zuckerberg, while the REAL people behind the revolution: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Gary Killdall, Ed Roberts, and even if we don’t like them, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Linus Torvalrds, Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman and other big ones never had a major motion picture. Even Marc Andreesen from Netscape has made more for the industry than Zuckerberg. OK, they had “Pirates of Silicon Valley”, an excellent movie, but made for television.
I’m not saying it could make a bad movie (David Fincher is an excellent director, and the movie is supposed to be quite good, I’ve heard) but, to me, this is absolute proof that the media industry has taken over, fabricating “technology geniuses” there there are none, and glorifying products which -I think- don’t deserve to be glorified.
Hype, hype, and hype.
Who the f$c4 is Mark Zuckerberg?
POTY is a classic topping signal. I look forward to SJ being POTY in 2011, at which point I will see a healthy portion of my Apple stock. POTY is the bell they ring at the top of a trend. Bezos was POTY in 1999 at the top of the dot.com bubble. This is Zuck’s Bezos moment, an award for being the poster child of a trend that any sane person knows has peaked (if not permanently – then at least for a long strech)
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t deserve to be man of the year any more than I do. Facebook is a nice contribution to social networking. I have hooked up with old friends a number of times thanks to FB but…
The comparison of innovations alone should be a clue that Steve Jobs has contributed more to our economy, technology and entertainment than 3 Mark Zuckerbergs.
@Grifterus – Each name in the pantheon you mention has a fascinating story. An old-time developer myself, I would recommend to the youngsters: “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution” by Steven Levy, free from Apple iBooks.