r/technology • u/NowThatsMalarkey • Feb 21 '25

Social Media Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover didn’t make people like him, study shows

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/20/mark-zuckerbergs-makeover-didnt-make-people-like-him-study-shows/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANAZlr-hGuhX1KqqPjBTkTce5FHYoTfozy456eW6cuu8YldzC5rpGfIlP07_a0jXdYc_eaaM6DrAXHX5G8e2xGc5SpbfTOxsJAwxR81w_TBGJlcjoLsVnZ8PWO1lNJgWgzm3MMz0BHDbCl-W5ehgrTueoJBD4LubB0aUd2ecJ39Y
25.3k Upvotes

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3.4k

u/DannyVandal Feb 21 '25

What? A new broccoli hair do and a large tee shirt didn’t suddenly make an unlikable dork likeable? Fuck me. What a world.

932

u/Toiretachi Feb 21 '25

But he wears a gold chain!

477

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '25

Plus all his RAD Roman dictator quotes on his shirt!

It's SO COOL simping for 2000 year old dictators!!!

188

u/Noblesseux Feb 22 '25 edited Feb 23 '25

It is REALLY fucking weird how obsessed with the Romans these guys are while often knowing absolutely nothing about Rome. They think about Rome like it's some perfect civilization when it literally was in turmoil like every couple months for most of its history.

69

u/martxel93 Feb 22 '25

What have the Romans ever done for us?

50

u/littlelordgenius Feb 22 '25

The aqueduct.

24

u/Noblesseux Feb 22 '25

Just to be clear here: Rome in fact did not create aqueducts, they're just associated with them because they had a bunch of them that survived in good enough condition for people to document them.

Aqueducts arrived spontaneously in quite a few places because as it turns out: as a species that needs water to live, we tend to treat figuring out how to move it around as a priority. There are examples of aqueducts in places like Crete that go back to like hundreds of years before the Romans, examples in India, examples in South America, etc.

Rome's biggest skill in a lot of ways is that they would see a good idea and go "wait why aren't WE doing that?" and find ways to incorporate it into their strategy.

2

u/Actual-Departure-843 12d ago

"Rome's biggest skill in a lot of ways is that they would see a good idea and go "wait why aren't WE doing that?"

A lot like Marc Zuckerberg then!

2

u/Noblesseux 12d ago

Except for the part where they were *good* at it.

43

u/banjo_assassin Feb 22 '25

And the sanitation.

33

u/GiniInABottle Feb 22 '25

Yes, but besides the aqueduct and sanitation and roads, what have the Romans done for us??

16

u/phatmahn Feb 22 '25

irrigation?

2

u/pirateg3cko Feb 23 '25

Bigusth Dickusth.

3

u/Bhuddhi Feb 22 '25

Fun fact all those ideas were taken by Romans not invented by them, they just had a habit of burning books and history wherever they went and tried to gaslight their empire that they came up with shit.

Which is completely on brand

4

u/WhisperTits Feb 23 '25

So you're saying for us to have the next revolution in technology we should be stealing it 🤔. I think you're onto something. -Xi Jinping

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3

u/martxel93 Feb 23 '25

All empires across history are built upon the suffering of endless amounts of people. Romans are no different, of course they did a lot of shitty stuff.

But even if they didn’t invent those things, wasn’t it the Romans that extended those commodities across the Imperium?

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6

u/kingburp Feb 22 '25

The Romans came up with porn websites as well. They would draw comics of the latest videos of people boning then hand them out across the whole empire.

6

u/tgwombat Feb 22 '25

The tubes we’ve got today would blow their minds.

1

u/ajakafasakaladaga Feb 24 '25

They had tubes that took water from the aqueducts into houses. They were made of lead

1

u/tgwombat Feb 24 '25

Sounds nice. I bet they went absolutely mad for them!

5

u/Icey210496 Feb 22 '25

I thought one of the more successful early attempts at a Republic was cool despite its flaws. I'm from Asia though and we're just all monarchies.

3

u/n_choose_k Feb 22 '25

It's a Monty Python reference. :)

2

u/Icey210496 Feb 23 '25

Ah I only watched the Holy Grail one. Life of Brian has been on my list forever!

0

u/Elmer_Fudd01 Feb 22 '25

Invented equal opportunity..... Enslavement.

33

u/Addahn Feb 22 '25

All the elites think they’re going to be Caesar, when in actuality they’re more likely to be Pompey, or Lepidus in the best-case scenario

35

u/dv666 Feb 22 '25

All the elites think they’re going to be Caesar,

He got stabbed 30 times.

2

u/churchofcrust Feb 22 '25

Why should Caesar get to stomp around like a giant, while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? What’s so great about Caesar? Hm? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar. Brutus is just as smart as Caesar. People totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar. And when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody, huh? Because that’s not what Rome is about. We should totally just stab Caesar!

1

u/bk_guy3 Feb 22 '25

Didn’t expect Gretchen Wieners to show up in this discussion, but here we are.

2

u/Sparrowbuck Feb 22 '25

Marcus Aurelius’ nepo baby successor.

2

u/Noblesseux Feb 22 '25

I think this is kind of part of the problem, yes. A lot of these people seem to not realize that that Rome was basically plagued with political infighting, civil wars, etc. A lot of the political class was like constantly getting killed, exiled, and so on because they were just constantly in one form of power struggle or another.

1

u/jolle2001 Feb 23 '25

Personally I hope for them to be Crassus

7

u/Legal_Expression3476 Feb 22 '25

It's mental illness. Delusions of grandeur.

9

u/Noblesseux Feb 22 '25

I think delusions of grandeur are probably a significant part of it. I think they like the "story" of Rome because they're incredibly susceptible to propaganda and a lot of what we think when we think about Rome was propaganda.

The buildings, a lot of the stories, the founding mythos... a lot of it was straight up constructed intentionally to give a certain image of Rome that kind of ignores the filth and constant violence.

30

u/Big-Veterinarian2269 Feb 22 '25 edited Feb 22 '25

Rome was a dystopian dictatorship that murdered and enslaved people by millions. Their favourite pastime was public torture. It was like Russia today, but much worse. Which is why these guys like it.

-9

u/Comfortable-Will231 Feb 22 '25

Russia is great actually.

The only bad leader for the most part is North Korea everyone else can be worked with

3

u/GayoMagno Feb 22 '25

What he should know about Romans is that they despised Jews and Hadrian alone was responsible of the creation of Palestine almost two thousand years ago, he almost single handedly eliminated Judaism as a whole.

4

u/BulbuhTsar Feb 22 '25

I've got folks on that side fighting against me with their google searches when I've got a degree in Classics. And I don't know why they're so obsessed. A graduate professor in a different field loved my references to the classical world, only for us to find out he had a private ultra conservative YouTube channel.

1

u/kingburp Feb 22 '25

Did he film the grift videos in his sleep? Literally one of my worst nightmares.

1

u/Comfortable-Will231 Feb 22 '25

Oh no! You’d better call the thought police! How dare he!

2

u/BulbuhTsar Feb 22 '25

He's allowed to talk about bringing back slavery and burning Protestants all he wants, but he probably should not be teaching. There is, surprise, Protestants and non whites amongst his students who he clearly has biases against. As for missing and misunderstanding antiquity, that's just poor academics, and I expect better from a professor since that's his literal job. At the end of the day he was let go for sexually harassing my peers.

But yeah, thought police, it's really the rest of us who are the problem.

0

u/Comfortable-Will231 Feb 22 '25

Oh no! I bet he complimented a girls hair but she actually identified as a two spirit he/them 🤣🤣🙄

2

u/East_Information_247 Feb 22 '25

Im just not sure whether they're emulating Hitler or that whole ethos lends itself to worshipping ancient Rome for its ramanticised grandeur, masculinity, and military totalitarianism.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

US settlers were basicly cosplaying Roman republic but forgot the Roman law somehow idk

1

u/BankLikeFrankWt Feb 23 '25

While on a team trying to recreate the fall of Rome in his own country

84

u/FloppyDorito Feb 22 '25

Dude, that's DESIGNER, BRO. He's dressing FRESH, fam. He's one of the cool Zoomers now!

3

u/elreniel2020 Feb 22 '25

why simp for 2000 year old dictators when you helped one getting into office?

6

u/TorrenceMightingale Feb 22 '25

Ok wait that did it for me. Just clicked the like button.

2

u/It_does_get_in Feb 22 '25

and yet doesn't rap or own an oil tanker.

2

u/Ok-Platypus-5236 Feb 22 '25

“But she’s got a new hat!”

1

u/MacaroonNo2253 Feb 22 '25

Gold chain, Joe Rogan hunting talks and a $900k watch didn't do the trick, hmmm

1

u/icein2017 Feb 22 '25

I remember when he just started the transformation and people were making memes of him with a gold chain. After that he actually started wearing one to be more “likable”

1

u/kingburp Feb 22 '25

You've got to hand it to him though, he's not AS unlikeable as Elon Musk.

1

u/AquaticAlchemy Feb 23 '25

But he does bjj!

-12

u/LeeDUBS Feb 21 '25

Ngl the buss down chain is sick af

9

u/Toiretachi Feb 21 '25

Is it though? Look at everything above the chain!

2

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

[deleted]

3

u/LeeDUBS Feb 22 '25

OMG I couldn't even finish that video. There's no way that's real is it??

159

u/Quentin__Tarantulino Feb 22 '25

I mean, he did everything necessary to be liked just within the past week. He fired thousands AND doubled executive bonuses! Why are the plebes not showering him with love?

145

u/Pontus_Pilates Feb 21 '25

Somebody descrbibed his new style as: 'He no longer refers to his clothing as clothes, he only talks about fits'

5

u/SyphiliticScaliaSayz Feb 22 '25

Someone referred to his look as “Puerto Rican gigilo”

75

u/Amity83 Feb 22 '25

I thought it made him look less like a creepy robot and more like a human douchebag.

48

u/Cheeseboarder Feb 22 '25

More like a creepy robot trying to look like a human douchebag

1

u/Illustrious_Look_504 Feb 22 '25

The Douche-Canny Valley. 

20

u/kman420 Feb 22 '25

It doesn't matter what clothes you wear, if you have a billion dollars I don't like you.

49

u/thebrobarino Feb 22 '25

Idk I saw those slop Instagram accounts like pubity do free press for Zuckerberg and all the idiot fuckwits in the comments were like "erm 🤔☝️ hang on...is le zucc cool now?" No Kzyaedyn. He's not cool. He never will be cool

20

u/resilienceisfutile Feb 22 '25

SBF dork wasn't likable, I don't understand why Skinny SBF dork would anymore likable.

16

u/ThunderChild247 Feb 22 '25

I wouldn’t even say he looks like a dork. There’s just something…. Unnatural about him. Inhuman.

He doesn’t even feel like an alien trying to wear a human suit because the alien would be trying harder to fit in.

He feels like a robot that’s been told that it’s human with only a few gigabytes of data as to what that means, so while Zuckerbot may appear human at a glance, it will always fail the Uncanny Valley test.

5

u/blakezilla Feb 22 '25

I once played Smash against Zuck at the FB offices in Cambridge, MA. This was like 10 years ago. He was pretty good but had zero reactions to anything that happened. Very robotic.

5

u/ThunderChild247 Feb 22 '25

Did he use a controller or just plug himself in?

6

u/blakezilla Feb 22 '25

He used a controller but also used his own Zuckdawg mii which is kinda weird. I think he is careful not to show his ports around the uninitiated.

5

u/ThunderChild247 Feb 22 '25

That’s fair. Usually if a billionaire showed you his ports you’d be made to sign an NDA.

12

u/Effwordmurdershow Feb 22 '25

It’s giving badly drawn cartoon character

9

u/10010101110011011010 Feb 22 '25

Wearing a $900,000 watch is not relatable?

7

u/Radiant_Beyond8471 Feb 22 '25

I read the headline and was like, "What makeover?" All I see is CarrotTop

4

u/Over_Example_1006 Feb 22 '25

Why would he even want people to like him to begin with? Is he trying to be the next Trump?

2

u/StevieThundersack Feb 22 '25

Why does someone want people to like him? Are you serious?

3

u/Catshit_Bananas Feb 22 '25

Fucking pimple farmer

2

u/Lahwuns Feb 22 '25

Curious what the questions were for this research.

Do you like the zucc? A. Yes B. No

2

u/Puzzlehead-Dish Feb 22 '25

Dork is diminishing his actual ways: he’s an oligarch.

2

u/dntcareboutdownvotes Feb 22 '25

Don't forget the dash of Nazi

2

u/HomeworkIntrepid2986 Feb 22 '25

90s/2000s teen movies lied to me

2

u/sunny_happy_demon Feb 22 '25

Right like in what world does cosplaying as "the guy from your high school everyone hated but had to tolerate because his brother sold weed and bootleg DVDs" lead to people liking you more?

2

u/nznordi Feb 22 '25

And talks of masculinity and removing fact checking … if he was a dork, that would be admirable… he’s a fascist narrative amplifying fool…

2

u/forgettit_ Feb 22 '25

What? People don’t instantly fall in love with a Chechnyan molly dealer?

2

u/Ok_Common_5631 Feb 23 '25

“Hey guys, I’m one of you now!”

Never mind that I have billions of dollars

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '25

When you owe everything you own to the guys you stole it from...

2

u/hvdzasaur Feb 24 '25

The best thing for his image would have been to fight Musk in that cage match.

Shame instead of that, he started licking his toes with Donnie.

1

u/Werner_Herzogs_Dream Feb 22 '25

There was a brief transition period between "smoke the meats" lizard person Mark, and middle aged teenage swag Mark, where he was borderline likeable.

-5

u/redditusersshoulddie Feb 22 '25

Your entire post history is vaping, insects, and video games but let’s call the billionaire a dork

2

u/DannyVandal Feb 22 '25

Yeah, sure. I used to be into that scene (vaping, it helped me quit a near 20 year cigarette addiction). Humans grow, mature, become less dorky. Zuckerberg, however…

1

u/Disseminated333 Feb 22 '25

And doxxing is so cool