Mark Zuckerberg Has Your Attention

On July 4th, 2021, billionaire and head of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg posted a video of himself riding an electric surfboard in the ocean carrying an American flag. The scenery behind him and the ocean he rides on at sunset are both stunning and you can guess this stunt likely cost thousands of dollars to produce. All, to what end? For our attention. And Mark Zuckerberg has our attention.

Ever since Zuckerberg wrote the formula on the window of his Harvard dorm (should David Fincher be believed), he has known that the most valuable asset in the world is attention. American runs on it. But Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have commoditized it.

He also knows how to avoid it. Right now, the young billionaire who owns 2% of all millennial wealth in this country is trying to buy up the state of Hawaii, which makes up the background behind him in his video. While waving the American flag.

This rubbed me the wrong way for quite a few reasons that I wanted to lay out here.

First, the history of Hawaiian colonization is well-documented, ongoing, and something that Mark Zuckerberg is actively reaping the benefits of. Starting in 1898 with the annexation of Hawaii by the U.S. government and expanding later with statehood in 1959, we’ve now reached the point where “the most densely populated main island of O’ahu is 22.4% controlled by the U,S. military.” Seen as a strategic military base, America has had no problem destroying native Hawaiian culture and ridding the islands of their own sovereignty in the name of ‘Freedom.’

So for Zuckerberg to be flying an American flag, a symbol of oppression on the islands, is harmful to say the least.

Second, Zuckerberg has been actively engaged in lawsuits against native landowners in an attempt to secure his private island getaway, with a new land purchase of 600 acres made in May of this year. And with the money and assets as his disposal, it’s something he has no problem seeing through.

Now, clearly these stories are getting press and Zuckerberg has even responded to claims that he is part of a neo-colonization movement by saying he would ‘try to make this right, talk with the community, and find a better approach.’ But this new land purchase shows that if he can take action towards his goals without losing shareholders, he will take whatever he likes.

Which brings us back to the 4th of July video. I personally don’t follow Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, and yet this video popped up in my feed as a ‘suggested’ post. As you can see in the screenshot, at the time I watched it, the video had 1.8 million likes and thousands of interactions. For someone other than Zuckerberg to get that kind of traction from a sponsored post, they would have to pay tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars into Facebook’s ad marketplace. But for Zuckerberg? He can spread his well-produced propaganda to Facebook’s entire audience with the click of a button.

Have you ever seen a sponsored post speaking out against Zuckerberg and his myriad of shady dealings? You probably haven’t. And that’s the point.

It’s been clear that people like Zuckerberg aren’t playing by the same rules as the rest of us for quite some time, but I don’t think there’s ever been such a glaringly obvious example before now. And it’s not just Zuckerberg who does this. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are on their way to space despite knowing that sustainable space travel is generations away to distract from the fact that they pay next to nothing in taxes. Elon Musk hosted SNL and posts memes on Twitter regularly to distract us from his union-busting ways and the fact that Telsas keep catching on fire.

It’s all part of a PR playbook and it works. But only because we let it.

I believe it is time we start turning our attention away from what Facebook suggests for us, from what they want us to focus on. They’ve created a world where as long as they are the center of attention, regardless of if they are the butt of the joke, we will continue watching. And writing pieces like this about them. And discussing those pieces. And arguing over the specifics while they persist, unaffected.

Instead, we should focus on the fact that each of these handful of individuals are doing irreparable damage to our planet that they will never live to see because they are insulated by their massive wealth. The climate crisis is here and while the billionaires and oil executives will tell you they are the solution to all of our problems, I’m tired of listening to their lies. They will continue destroying our world for profit and will never stop of their own accord. We have to stop them.

So next time you see Elon Musk share a dumb meme or Mark Zuckerberg try to be relatable, remember that they want your attention because their livelihoods depend on it. And when the oceans begin to rise and the power grid fails, I’m sure they’ll have something to distract us with from their safe houses to keep us occupied.

I’ll leave you with a favorite quote from Ursula K. Le Guin:

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”