Mark Zuckerberg: The “Eye of Sauron” celebrates its 40th birthday

The world knows him as a social media giant and one of the richest people on the planet. Employees see him as a powerful fantasy villain. Mark Zuckerberg (40) also wants to present himself as a committed martial artist and loving family man. Image cultivation, one might assume. On May 14th, “Zuck” will celebrate his 40th birthday – and with it more than half a life in which the meta boss has dedicated himself to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.

Lots of love and a “Harry Potter” picture

On the one hand, there is the successful businessman who has been causing a stir with social media innovations for more than 20 years. On the other is an apparently approachable husband and father of three children who posts information about his private life online. “A lot of love,” according to him, was how he and his wife, Priscilla Chan (39), announced in September 2022 that their kids Max and August would soon have a little sister. Little Aurelia was born in March.

Mockers may see this as a calculated prime example of how to appear as human as possible as a person with a reality that is light years away from that of most others. At the weekend we go with the daughter, the New Year and on Halloween the Zuckerbergs go. “Look, I’m a person like everyone else,” is what you might read from the sight of Professor Mark Dumbledore. Others may wonder how the Sorting Hat would assign it.

The misunderstood billionaire

Aside from all the data and privacy scandals and controversies surrounding Zuckerberg’s platforms that have been coming up again and again for years: at least his social media posts are a response to memes circulating on the Internet in which “Zuck” has been used for some time Time is portrayed, among other things, as soulless or as an alien.

For his subordinates, the “Metamates”, the tech billionaire Dumbledore becomes the antagonist from JRR Tolkien’s (1892-1973) fantasy classic “The Lord of the Rings”. Zuckerberg himself admitted about two years ago that his attention while working was sometimes called “the eye of Sauron.” But he believes that the people he works with mean it lovingly. Even if he is flaming and observing, as in Peter Jackson’s (62) celebrated film trilogy, he threatens to destroy everything. According to the principle: “You have an infinite amount of energy to work on something. And if you direct that at a specific team, you will simply burn it.”

Especially at the beginning he was misunderstood and that felt bad, as Zuckerberg explained. “I think that there is a normal human impulse which is to want to be understood,” said the entrepreneur. “I think that’s partly why people want to express themselves and why communication is so important – people have, in some ways, an inner desire to be understood and to belong and to feel like they belong to the people around them belong around.”

500 million friends

With all this, at least he doesn’t have to worry about his finances. The entrepreneur is currently in fourth place on his list of billionaires. His assets are said to be around $177 billion (as of May 13). More than enough to give himself a small, premature birth present, the purchase price of which could have financed one – or several – personal image films at an absolute blockbuster level.

Zuckerberg is said to have treated himself to a mega yacht – a 118 meter long floating palace – worth around $300 million, as was reported in the media in March. If he had spent $100 million more, he could have made his own version of “The Social Network” ten times instead. David Fincher’s (61) biographical drama from 2010, in which Jesse Eisenberg (40) played Mark Zuckerberg, had an estimated budget of $40 million at the time. With his own version he wouldn’t have to bother with a, to say the least, questionable portrayal of himself and “You can’t have 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”

He could probably have made many new friends and another enemy last year if the fight against Elon Musk (52) hadn’t just degenerated into a few old posts with tens of thousands of likes.

The X boss and mob billionaire challenged “Zuck” to a cage fight in the summer, a dream for advertisers and a possible popularity boost for the meta boss. The chances would at least have been good that the amateur martial artist, , would give the even more controversial Musk a big punch in the head and thereby gain goodwill.

So far, the whole thing has remained just a publicity prank, with Zuckerberg dismissing it with: “If Elon is ever serious about a real date and an official event, he knows how to contact me. Otherwise, it’s time to move on . I will focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”