Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s long-term vision for Facebook, laid out in a sweeping manifesto , sometimes sounds more like a utopian social guide than a business plan. Are we, he asks, \u201cbuilding the world we all want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhile most people now use Facebook to connect with friends and family, Zuckerberg thinks that the social network can also encourage more civic engagement, from the local to the global level. Facebook now has nearly 2 billion members, which makes it larger than any nation in the world.<\/p>\n
His 5,800-word essay positions Facebook in direct opposition to a rising tide of isolationism and fear of outsiders, both in the U.S. and abroad. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Zuckerberg stressed that he wasn\u2019t motivated by the U.S. election or any other particular event. Rather, he said, it\u2019s the growing sentiment in many parts of the world that \u201cconnecting the world\u201d \u2014 the founding idea behind Facebook \u2014 is no longer a good thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the world there are people left behind by globalization, and movements for withdrawing from global connection,\u201d Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, wrote on Thursday. So it falls to the company to \u201cdevelop the social infrastructure to give people the power to build a global community that works for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
CONNECTING IN FACEBOOK\u2019S INTEREST<\/strong><\/p>\n Zuckerberg, 32, told the AP that he still strongly believes that more connectedness is the right direction for the world. But, he added, it\u2019s \u201cnot enough if it\u2019s good for some people but it\u2019s doesn\u2019t work for other people. We really have to bring everyone along.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly a surprise that Zuckerberg wants to find ways to bring more people together, especially on Facebook. After all, getting more people to come together on the social network more frequently would give Facebook more opportunities to sell the ads that generate most of its revenue, which totaled $27 billion last year. And bringing in more money probably would boost Facebook\u2019s stock price to make Zuckerberg \u2014 already worth an estimated $56 billion \u2014 even richer.<\/p>\n And while the idea of unifying the world is laudable, some critics \u2014 backed by various studies \u2014 contend Facebook makes some people feel lonelier and more isolated as they scroll through the mostly ebullient posts and photos shared on the social network. Facebook\u2019s famous \u201clike\u201d button also makes it easy to engage in a form of \u201cone-click\u201d communication that can displace meaningful dialogue.<\/p>\n Facebook also has been lambasted as a polarizing force by circulating posts espousing similar viewpoints and interests among like-minded people, creating an \u201cecho chamber\u201d that can harden opinions and widen political and cultural chasms.<\/p>\n COMMUNITY SUPPORT<\/strong><\/p>\n Today, most of Facebook\u2019s 1.86 billion members \u2014 about 85 percent \u2014 live outside of the U.S. and Canada. The Menlo Park, California-based company has offices everywhere from Amsterdam to Jakarta, Indonesia, to Tel Aviv, Israel. (It is banned in China, the world\u2019s most populous country, though some people get around the ban.) Naturally, Zuckerberg takes a global view of Facebook and sees potential that goes beyond borders, cities and nations.<\/p>\n And that could allow the social network to step up as more traditional cultural ties fray. People already use Facebook to connect with strangers who have the same rare disease, to post political diatribes, to share news links (and sometimes fake news links ). Facebook has also pushed its users to register to vote, to donate to causes, to mark themselves safe after natural disasters, and to \u201cgo live .\u201d For many, it\u2019s become a utility. Some 1.23 billion people use it daily.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the past decade, Facebook has focused on connecting friends and families. With that foundation, our next focus will be developing the social infrastructure for community \u2014 for supporting us, for keeping us safe, for informing us, for civic engagement, and for inclusion of all,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n LONG VIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n Zuckerberg has gotten Facebook to this position of global dominance \u2014 one that Myspace and Twitter, for instance, never even approached \u2014 partly thanks to his audacious, long-term view of the company and its place in the world.<\/p>\n Last fall, Zuckerberg and his wife, the doctor Priscilla Chan, unveiled the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative , a long-term effort aimed at eradicating all disease by the end of this century. Then, as now, Zuckerberg preferred to look far down the road to the potential of scientific and technological innovations that have not been perfected, or even invented yet.<\/p>\n That includes artificial intelligence, which in this case means software that\u2019s capable of \u201cthinking\u201d enough like humans to start making the sorts of judgments that Facebook sometimes bobbles. Last September, for instance, the service briefly barred the famous Vietnam War-era photograph dubbed \u201cNapalm Girl\u201d because it featured a nude child, and only reversed its decision after users \u2014 including the prime minister of Norway \u2014 protested.<\/p>\n AI systems could also comb through the vast amount of material users post on Facebook to detect everything from bullying to the early signs of suicidal thinking to extremist recruiting. AI, Zuckerberg wrote, could \u201cunderstand more quickly and accurately what is happening across our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to the AP, Zuckerberg said he understands that we might not \u201csolve all the issues that we want\u201d in the short term.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my favorite quotes is this Bill Gates quote, that \u2018people overestimate what they can get done in two years and underestimate what they can get done in 10 years.\u2019 And that\u2019s an important mindset that I hope more people take today,\u201d he said.\u2014AP<\/p>\n Image: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s long-term vision for Facebook, laid out in a sweeping manifesto , sometimes sounds more like a utopian social guide than a business plan. 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