mark zuckerberg

Contents

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1 Early life
2 Software developer
2.1 Early years
2.2 College years
3 Career
3.1 Facebook
3.2 Wirehog
3.3 Platform, Beacon and Connect
3.4 Legal controversies
4 Depictions in media
4.1 The Social Network
4.2 Other depictions
5 Use of other social networks
6 Philanthropy
7 Politics
8 Personal life
8.1 Marriage
8.2 Interests
9 References
10 External links
Early life

Zuckerberg was born in 1984 in White Plains, New York.[18] He is the son of Karen (née Kempner), a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist.[19] He and his three sisters, Randi, Donna, and Arielle,[2] were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York.[2] Zuckerberg was raised Jewish, had his bar mitzvah when he turned 13,[20][21] and has since described himself as an atheist.[21][22][23][24]

At Ardsley High School, Zuckerberg excelled in classics. He transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy in his junior year, where he won prizes in science (math, astronomy and physics) and classical studies (on his college application, Zuckerberg claimed that he could read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek). He was a fencing star and captain of the fencing team.[23][25][26][27] In college, he was known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Iliad.[25]

Software developer

Early years

Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately. Newman calls him a "prodigy", adding that it was "tough to stay ahead of him". Zuckerberg took a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while still in high school. He enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. In one such program, since his father's dental practice was operated from their home, he built a software program he called "ZuckNet" that allowed all the computers between the house and dental office to communicate with each other. It is considered a "primitive" version of AOL's Instant Messenger, which came out the following year.[2]

According to writer Jose Antonio Vargas, "some kids played computer games. Mark created them." Zuckerberg himself recalls this period: "I had a bunch of friends who were artists. They'd come over, draw stuff, and I'd build a game out of it." However, notes Vargas, Zuckerberg was not a typical "geek-klutz", as he later became captain of his prep school fencing team and earned a classics diploma. Napster co-founder Sean Parker, a close friend, notes that Zuckerberg was "really into Greek odysseys and all that stuff", recalling how he once quoted lines from the Roman epic poem Aeneid, by Virgil, during a Facebook product conference.[2]

During Zuckerberg's high school years, under the company name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player called the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot[28] and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine.[29] Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he chose instead to enroll at Harvard in September 2002.[citation needed]