Mark Zuckerberg Is a Homewrecker
Silicon Valley warps the mind. In the real world, your health, family, and friends are most important. In the Valley, they're what you trade for speed, buzz, and valuation, as illustrated in a heartbreaking scene from the Facebook-Google war.
Feeling pressure from rival social network Google Plus, Facebook went on its second annual "lockdown" this summer, basically requiring everyone to work nights and weekends for 60 days. Kids got to enjoy the sweatshop environment, too, according to Fortune's behind the scenes account of Google vs Facebook:
Facebook employees put in some serious overtime during the summer lockdown... The cafeteria opened up on evenings and weekends this summer, and children dropped in for dinners and good-night hugs before their parents logged back on for late nights.
There is a time and a place for overtime. When you're building bombers to fight the Germans, for example, or trying to keep your factory from closing. This is not one of those times! The Google-Facebook "war" might feel very real and very important in the bubble of Silicon Valley, and revamping "key social features like photos, groups, and events" might seem utterly crucial to Facebook's robotic boy king Mark Zuckerberg. But in the end Facebook is just a God damned internet website, one whose billion dollars in annual profits stand as evidence that an all hours, all hands emergency rescue is utterly unnecessary. Something is seriously fucked up when families are being broken up in order to improve tools to foster and showcase family togetherness.
[Photo via Getty]