Thaindian News

Dec 15 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the social network site known as ‘Facebook’ has been named as ‘Person of the Year’ by Time Magazine, and the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, alongside the Tea Party, the President of Afghanistan, and the Chilean Miners are the runners up. Zuckerberg is the second youngest person to ever be given the award, with Charles Lindberg being the youngest.

The Internet is all abuzz concerning the win by Zuckerberg, and many are asking if he deserved the recognition by Time. He will be featured on the front cover and joins an elite club which consists of presidents, foreign leaders, and business giants such as Bill Gates from Microsoft, and Jeff Bezos from Amazon.

But Leena Rao from TechCrunch says that she is not surprised by the choice, “considering the huge year Facebook has seen in terms of massive user growth, controversy surrounding privacy issues, and the release of new products. And The Social Network’s success also contributed to the media frenzy surrounding the company and its founder.”

Matt Welch from Reason stated that this should have happened five years ago, but Ed Morrissey at Hot Air explains his feelings based on the actual impact which Facebook has had, “It has spawned a Hollywood movie, which is probably why Time bothered to notice it after more than six years. It’s a popular meeting space, and it allows people to reconnect to old friends, as well as waste vast amounts of time with imaginary farms and wannabe virtual Mafia dons. Facebook is mostly a time suck. At least Twitter had an impact last year in the attempt by the Iranian people to rebel against the dictatorship in Tehran.”