Zuckerberg frames Facebook as supplying purpose and hope to unsettled moderns

Evidence

In 2017 Zuckerberg went even further in articulating his societal ambitions, this time aiming straight at the heart of second-modernity anxieties: “People feel unsettled. A lot of what was settling in the past doesn’t exist anymore.” Zuckerberg believes that he and his company can provide a future “that works for everyone” and fulfills “personal, emotional, and spiritual needs” for “purpose and hope,” “moral validation,” and “comfort that we are not alone.” “Progress now requires humanity coming together not just as cities or nations,” Zuckerberg urged, “but also as a global community… the most important thing we at Facebook can do is develop the social infrastructure… to build a global community.…” Citing Abraham Lincoln, Facebook’s founder located his company’s mission in the evolutionary time line of civilization, during which humanity organized itself first in tribes, then cities, then nations. The next phase of social evolution would be “global community,” and Facebook was to lead the way, constructing the means and overseeing the ends. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1282

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the book’s earlier treatment of ‘second modernity’ and the yearning for connection as the drive behind surveillance capitalism. — connects to: Facebook’s founder frames surveillance as a redemptive global church infrastructure — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1631
• SEED: Angle: tech CEOs’ appropriation of religious/evolutionary language (‘purpose and hope,’ civilization stages) as a rhetorical strategy to naturalize platform dominance.

Broader Connections

• Facebook’s founder frames surveillance as a redemptive global church infrastructure #complicates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1631