Time’s person of the year, from Lindbergh to Zuckerberg

Last update: December 16, 2010

John Rash
Star Tribune Editorial Writer

After his historic transatlantic flight changed the concept of distance between people, Minnesotan Charles Lindbergh, then 25, was Time magazine's first "Man of the Year."

After he "wired together a twelfth of humanity into a single network," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 26, is the latest "Person of the Year." (Reflecting social progress and several women winners, Time has moved from "Man" to "Person").
Lindbergh explored the expanse of airspace to shrink the planet. Zuckerberg used cyberspace to do the same.

The reaction to each achievement says as much about societal shifts as their two accomplishments.

Lindbergh was mobbed upon landing in Paris, hailed as a hero and dubbed "Lucky Lindy." Embodying the Roaring '20s, his name was attached to everything from a dance craze (the "Lindy Hop'') to a possible presidential run.

As for Zuckerberg, he's the subject of the unflattering film portrayal in "The Social Network," which was nominated for a Golden Globe and is a leading Oscar contender.

Zuckerberg is one of several media or tech titans to receive the Time distinction, and the computer itself was "Machine of the Year" in 1982.

Nine years later, Ted Turner (who like Zuckerberg shrunk distances with the world's first global news network, CNN) was "Man of the Year."

In 1997, Intel's Andy Grove, pioneer of the microchip, hit it big. And two years later it was Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos.
Time picked Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2005, although it was more for opening philanthropic doors than for Windows. He shared the cover with his wife Melinda and U2's Bono.

Then in 2006, in a widely derided choice that proved prescient, Time chose "You," as in yeah, you and me and all those involved in a "community and collaboration never seen before."
Zuckerberg's Facebook and other social networks are an antecedent of this choice.

Reflecting the way we live now, Zuckerberg -- or more precisely, Facebook -- was a good choice.

He won't be remembered like previous winners who were an example of the "Great Man" theory of history. But his invention, or some version of it, will, because it has changed communication -- and us -- forever.

Just don't expect anyone to be dancing the "Zuckerberg Hop" in celebration anytime soon.