What Determines ‘Person of the Year’?
December 20, 2010
TIME magazine has selected the CEO of the Facebook social network, Mark Zuckerberg, as its "Person of the Year." The 26-year-old Zuckerberg is the youngest person to be honored by TIME since Charles Lindbergh in 1927.
In selecting Zuckerberg for the honor, TIME passed up the Tea Party movement, the Chilean miners, and Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.
These sorts of awards that TIM and others do this time of year and throughout the year are subjective at best. What does "influence" mean? How is it measured? Who decides?
TIME editors said Zuckerberg earned the award for "connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives."
Just one comment: exchanging information doesn't mean we are growing wiser. And as for the ability to change a life, or lives, I'll take Jesus of Nazareth and his superior ability to change lives over TIME's person of the year. Anyday! Jesus is the person of any and every year.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
Originally published December 20, 2010.
