Sad List of 2010 Heroes

Zuckerberg walked away with Times Person of the Year. Which I find baffling. Yes, Facebook as a product is incredible in terms of connecting people, even if it is used largely to poke people, announce breakups, and copy and paste meaningless messages. But given the outcries of privacy issues it creates - and Zuckerberg's remarkable reluctance to take those user concerns seriously - I'm rather surprised about the decision. I probably shouldn't be. He's a bazillionaire with his very own movie.


Many wanted Julian Assange (WikiLeaks founder) or Bradley Manning, the Army private who worked on classified networked and distributed any number of classified diplomatic cables and top secret government documents, to have been the choice, and here I leap into librarian heresy: I'm not going to call Assange or Manning heroes for wholesale datadump of classified material.


In any case, Zuckerberg, Assange & Manning. The Tea Party, which is not, in fact, a "person," but an entire group of persons who border on the irrational and would have us do away with separation of church & state. Hamid Karzai, a ballot-box stuffer). The Chilean miners who - while their story was touching - accomplished not much other than working in horrible conditions and being saved by others.


What a sad and sorry list of "people of the year" for 2010. I suppose they're chosen for impact and not really "Fantastic Persons of the Year" status. In that case, I guess Zuckerberg may have been the most decent choice out of that pool.

Comments

Jared R. Byer said…
The person of the year is not necessarily supposed to be a hero. Their guidelines point out that the person of the year should be the one that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."

I think it would be hard to deny that anything in 2010 influenced the most individuals and the events of their lives if not necessarily the biggest news events of the year more than facebook.

From news and opinions that I have heard concerning the running of facebook, Zuckerberg is not only instrumental but very much involved in almost all aspects of the business.

Given that, I think he is an acceptable choice.
11:53 AM
Sarah said…
Clearly TIME doesn't always pick "Fantastic Persons" - Hitler and Stalin have both been selected.
12:17 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Impressions & Customer Service Failures

We all know how important first impressions are, right? It's sort of like how Anne McCaffrey's dragons "impress" on new dragonriders-to-be. (Yes, I'm feeling nostalgic with a new herd of freshmen on campus.) First impressions are essential, particularly when you're talking about freshmen, wet behind the ears, completely disoriented and overwhelmed by being at a state school for their first college experience, and stressed out by trying to find their classrooms and last-minute add/drops on their schedule. I usually don't think of them this way, because I'm not a fundraiser or in the alumni office, but the University at large should also think about the fact that these are the kids we hope will call this university 'home' even after they leave. (That could be my small liberal arts college experience shining through, though.) If nothing else, due to UTC's abysmal retention rates, you'd think the entire university would be bending over back
Read more

On the Great Myth of the Librarian Grays

Lately, there's been a lot of discussion (and bitching) about the promised graying/retirement within the library profession that was supposed to open up endless job opportunities for new librarians. The LITA-L email list, a recent American Libraries article , and a post by Peter Brantley calling for an overthrow by the young'uns have all been pretty popular topics of late. January 15, 2004, Rachel Singer Gordon published a piece in Library Journal titled "NextGen: Get Over the "Graying" Profession Hype" . I say again: this was 2004. It would appear no one took the advice, given that today - despite very obvious evidence to the contrary, American Libraries just printed an ill-advised article on recruiting undergrads to the profession , citing the graying of the profession as a reason for folks to sign up for library work. Jessamyn West, in her recent post "show us the numbers re: new librarian jobs" , calls for more than the ever-present empty a
Read more

Jobseeker Tip 1: CV/Resume Objectives, And A Contest!

**This blog post is first in a series about job search advice as discussed by my happy band of fellow library hiring managers, and is not related to any particular individual applicant from actual past, current, or future searches. All objectives included below are largely fictional, and any resemblance they may bear to actual CV objectives is the fault of the CV writer** Let's talk about the "Objective" section on your CV or resume. (Or, I'll write, you read.) Delete it. No, really. It's a waste of precious page real estate, and while it offers you the opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot, it doesn't offer a similar-sized boon if you get it right. If you make it library-department and library type specific: "Objective: To obtain a technical services position in an academic library setting" you'll look like a fool if you forget to then tailor that line when you start applying for reference jobs and public library positions. (Don't laugh
Read more