Mark Zuckerberg is TIME's Person of the Year

 

TIME magazine has chosen 26-year old Facebook  founder  Mark Zuckerberg as its Person of the Year  for 2010. Since 1920 TIME has chosen a person, or a group of people, who have changed the world  for the better , or sometimes for worse.

Mark Zuckerberg won the  award  because he has  created  a new style of communication and a new way of  exchanging  information. In 2010 a film called “ The Social Network portrayed   Zuckerberg’s life at  Harvard  and what happened later on. After winning the prize Zuckerberg stated that he is happy that Facebook has  succeeded  in being something that millions want to use.

Everything began in February 2004, when Zuckerberg was still a student at Harvard.  There he started an online platform that connected college students. It was a way of keeping  in touch  when you left college and the university. By the end of 2004 Facebook had grown and was  accessible  on hundreds of  campuses  across the USA.

By 2006 13 million people used the social network; today Facebook is used by 600 million people around the word. Although 50% of all Americans have a Facebook account three out of four users come from outside the US. Since 2004 Mark Zuckerberg has earned about 6 billion dollars, making him the youngest  billionaire  one of the richest people in the United States.

 

 

Facebook wouldn’t be possible without the Internet, a system of millions of computers with nobody  in charge . When more and more people went online since the  introduction  of the World Wide Web, being  connected  became very important.

According to Zuckerberg Facebook gives you the feeling of not being alone, of having friends, even if you haven’t met them in person. People want to find others who have the same interests and hobbies.  Apart from  chatting with others there are many other things you can do on Facebook. Millions of people  share  their holiday photos. You can play games,  browse  the fan pages of your favourite  celebrities  or even go shopping with your Facebook account. A  tracking tool  even tells your friends your exact  location .

Facebook’s  headquarters  is in the middle of Silicon Valley, in Palo Alto California, not far away from Google or Amazon. 1,700  employees  work in two big office buildings with many windows.

Zuckerberg also  faces  a lot of criticism. Not everyone thinks Facebook will put a positive change on the way we live. Posting your private life on the Internet makes it  accessible to everyone, but on the other hand you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.

 

 

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Words

  • accessible   = easy to get
  • according to   = as said by …
  • apart from   = except for
  • award   = prize
  • billion   = a thousand million
  • billionaire   = a person who has earned a billion dollars
  • browse   = look through
  • campus   = land and buildings of a university or college
  • celebrity   = a famous person, star
  • connect   = here: to be online
  • create   = make
  • employee   = a person who works for a company
  • exchange   = trade, give for something else
  • face   = you must deal with something
  • for the better   = in a way that makes something  better
  • founder   = person who started something
  • Harvard   = oldest university in the US
  • headquarters   =main building of a company or organization
  • in charge   = in control
  • in touch   = to talk or write to someone
  • introduction   = beginning
  • location   = position
  • portray   = show
  • share   = use together
  • succeed   = to do what you tried or wanted to
  • tracking tool   = a program that shows where you are