Mark Zuckerberg

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Every day, over 1 billion people log on to the Internet and check Facebook. It is the most popular social media website in the world as of 2017, with over 1.25 billion active daily users and almost 2 billion active monthly users. But not many people know much about its creator, the 33-year old Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14th, 1984, in White Plains, New York. At an early age, he took an interest in computer science. In 2002, during his sophomore year at Harvard University, with the help of four of his friends, Zuckerberg created a social media site known as Thefacebook, which would later be shortened to just Facebook. Zuckerberg left Harvard in his sophomore year to work full-time on the social media site. Today, with a net worth estimated to be over $58 billion, Zuckerberg is a very successful man. Throughout his life, Mark Zuckerberg has proven himself to be a hero because he is dedicated to his work as a computer scientist and is a selfless human being.

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Ever since Zuckerberg was a child, he has been a dedicated person. When he was only 12 years old, Zuckerberg took an interest in computer programming, and his family discovered that he was very talented at writing computer programs. He wrote several games for his friends and a primitive messaging system for computers in his house. George Beahm, in his book The Boy Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg in his Own Words, wrote that "They [Zuckerberg's parents] hired a tutor - a software developer named David Newman who quickly realized that Mark was not your typical student but in fact a prodigy" (Beahm 18). Zuckerberg was able to write a lot of interesting programs at a young age, showing his interest in the field of computer programming, and he maintained that interest in writing computer programs for his whole life. Even today, he is still working in the field of computer science, as he is the head of a large social media company. Mark Zuckerberg is dedicated in other ways, too. In 2002, while at college at Harvard University, Zuckerberg created a program called FaceMash, which took photos of 2 female students from the school yearbooks and asked other students to judge which photo was more attractive. The site was shut down by the school just 4 hours after it came online, because it was deemed "not appropriate". Shortly after, the Winklevoss twins approached Zuckerberg for help in their project. While working with the twins, Zuckerberg had the idea of a social media site, and left the twins in favor of his own project: Facebook. "The group ran the site-first called The Facebook-out of a dorm room at Harvard until June 2004. After his sophomore year, Zuckerberg dropped out of college to devote himself to Facebook full time, moving the company to Palo Alto, California" (Biography.com Editors). Zuckerberg chose to abandon his education in favor of making Facebook a better social media site and expanding its capabilities, which was a risky move at the time because Facebook's success was unpredictable. Zuckerberg is dedicated because he maintained his interest in computer science from an early age, and left a prestigious school to pursue his interests. Because Zuckerberg is dedicated, he is a hero.

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In addition to being dedicated to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is also a selfless human being. In 2012, Zuckerberg married his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, who he had been dating for several years before. In 2015, they had their first daughter, Max. To celebrate the birth of their daughter, Zuckerberg "announced [...] that he and his wife would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares 'during our lives' -- holdings currently worth more than $45 billion -- to charitable purposes" (Goel and Wingfield). Since Zuckerberg is a very wealthy man, if he kept all of his wealth, he could feel fulfilled for the rest of his life. Instead Zuckerberg chose to donate almost all of it to charity - an action that shows he is a selfless person. In addition to large donations to charity, Mark Zuckerberg is also selfless in other ways. Today, more than half of the world has no access to reliable internet, mainly in developing countries. Zuckerberg wants to change that. "The V-shaped unmanned vehicle, which has about the wingspan of a Boeing 767 but weighs less than a small car, is the centerpiece of Facebook's plans to connect with the five billion or so people it has yet to reach" (Hardy and Goel). Zuckerberg has no need to build these drones. He already has access to the capabilities of the Internet. However, Zuckerberg built the drones because he wants to connect other people in developing countries to the information collected on the Internet. Because Zuckerberg donated a very large portion of his wealth to helping others, and also created drones to help provide Internet access to people in need, he is a selfless person, making him a hero.

Mark Zuckerberg is a deserving hero because he is dedicated and selfless. Zuckerberg is dedicated because he maintained an interest in computer science throughout his life, and because he left a prestigious college to work on Facebook. Zuckerberg is selfless because he donated most of his wealth to charitable purposes and also provided Internet access to people who did not have it. Mark Zuckerberg is an inspiration to people all over the globe because he is a very kind, dedicated and selfless person. He has affected a very large amount of people in a positive way, and is one of the heroes of the modern age. The Earth as we know it today is connected through the Internet. Social media plays a dominant factor in our lives, from how we read news, to how we work with other people, to how we meet new friends and keep up with old ones. We are all just human beings living in a fast-paced world of ever-advancing technology. But sometimes, it's nice to stop and get to know a little more about the man who started it all.

Works Cited

Beahm, George. The Boy Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg in His Own Words. Chicago, B2 Books, 2012.

Biography.com Editors. "Mark Zuckerberg." Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/people/mark-zuckerberg-507402. Accessed 5 May 2017.

Hardy, Quentin and Goel, Vindu. "Drones Beaming Web Access Are in the Stars for Facebook." The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Mar. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/technology/drones-beaming-web-access-are-in-the-stars-for-facebook.html. Accessed 11 May 2017.

Wingfield, Nick, and Goel, Vindu. "Mark Zuckerberg Vows to Donate 99% of His Facebook Shares for Charity." The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/technology/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-charity.html. Accessed 5 May 2017.