The power of Mark Zuckerberg

Almost everyone around me saw the movie when it was released but I did not. For someone who switched to smartphone the next day after 2G service was shut down last summer, I have never used Kakao Talk, let alone Facebook. For me, the movie poster with the description, “500 million online friends, the youngest billionaire, and a Harvard genius” was way out of my interest. When the 500 million increased to 1.5 billion, I finally watched the movie.

Mark Zuckerberg, who was then a sophomore at Harvard, created a website ranking the appearances of women on the day when he was dumped by his girlfriend because he was arrogant and annoying. Zuckerberg got a warning from the university because the site used photos of female undergraduates after hacking from the university’s directories and promoted hate-mongering against women. But he took it lightly, saying the site was a little joke and the university should thank him for letting them know that they had a weak security system. The Winklevoss brothers, seniors at Harvard, recognized his talent through this incident and recruited him for their campus social media project. Zuckerberg accepted their proposal and at the same time talked about the idea as if it were his own to his friend Saverin. He proposed partnership to Saverin, promising that he would give him 30% stake if he made investments. Eventually, he and Saverin launched Facebook with the idea of the Winklevoss. After the company grew rapidly, Zuckerberg booted his co-founder out of the company. The movie portrays the story behind Facebook’s birth, detailing the lawsuits between Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss, and between Zuckerberg and Saverin.

I was shocked after watching the movie because the description on the poster was the opposite of what the movie was about. So I searched online and found the original poster. It read in big letters, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” It befitted the theme of the movie. I wonder why the description on the Korean version of the poster described Zuckerberg as a hero. It made me creepy to see so many reviews that said, “I want to be like Zuckerberg.”

We are seeing increasing number of young billionaires, such as idol singers, athletes, and IT geniuses. We are living in an era where money is power. This is why it has become more important that those with wealth have good personality. Zuckerberg grew up in a wealthy family thanks to his doctor parents and got expensive education from an early age. But he seemed to have missed something really important. He pleaded innocent to charges against him, evading questions and making irrelevant remarks. Finally when the situation turned against him, he reluctantly negotiated a settlement. Twelve years has passed from then, and he has now become the king of the global social network. He has the personal information of 2.7 billion individuals and has the power to form public opinion on an international level. This is why he must have a decent personality that does not pursue self-interest. I hope this will prove to be unnecessary concerns.