Time Magazine recently named Mark Zuckerberg their 2010 “Person of the Year”. In terms of impact, I can’t say I disagree.

The article itself is fascinating, mostly a tribute to Zuckerberg and an insight into his mind and character, but I think the best part comes on page 9:

However much more authentic the selves we present on Facebook are than they were in the anonymous Internet wilderness that came before it, they still fall far short of our true selves, and confusing our Facebook profiles with who we really are would be a terrible mistake. We are running our social lives over the Internet, an infrastructure that was not designed for that purpose, and we must be aware of the distortions it creates or we will be distorted by them. The standard cliché for describing viral technology like Facebook has always been, “The genie is out of the bottle.” But Facebook inverts that. Now Facebook is the bottle, and we’re the genie. How small are we willing to make ourselves to fit inside?

-Lev Grossman, Mark Zuckerberg – Person of the Year

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Check out the article for yourself.