INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mark Zuckerberg was dressed in a navy suit that looked rather large for his modest frame (AFP)
Did anyone really think Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg would
come to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress wearing a T-shirt or a hoodie Of course he'd wear a suit
No matter how deserved his reputation as a cultural disrupter and a Silicon Valley savant, he knows the difference between chatting up
millenials on some LEED-certified tech campus and being roasted over the flames in a wood-paneled Senate hearing room
He understands traditions and protocol
He knows how the establishment works.He's part of it now - no matter how grudging he might be in accepting that
members of the Senate who were there to talk Russia, Cambridge Analytics and invasion of privacy, his eyes were wide and occasionally darted
He nodded slightly as Sen
if he'd only laid eyes on the name moments before
The tech entrepreneur sipped and sipped on water as he listened to Sen
Bill Nelson, D-Fla., drawl "lied" into a three-syllable accusation.Zuckerberg did not look at ease
He did not have the demeanor of the smartest and most impressive guy in the room
He looked like a 33-year-old man burdened with having to explain technology to legislators who are more than twice his age and don't really
want to hear about how users can change their settings; they just want him to fix what's wrong with the damn thing.Zuckerberg was dressed in
a navy suit that looked rather large for his modest frame
His shirt collar was most certainly too big and his pale blue tie was knotted so loosely that it hung from his neck as if it had been
pre-tied and quickly looped over his head
He was wearing the tie, but he clearly didn't want to be
There was no hint of pride in his appearance
No personal flair or polish
Everything about his attire was perfunctory
He could have done better, and he has
He wore a better fitting jacket back in 2011 during a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters with President Barack Obama
He looked rather elegant in 2015 when he and his wife Priscilla Chan attended a state dinner at the White House
Zuckerberg did not give Capitol Hill his sartorial all.His hair was cut so close that it was more like penitence than grooming
And his resting expression, as the hearing went on, shifted from shell-shocked to angry to impatient.Zuckerberg, new to the witness walk and
the hours of testimony, has not perfected the art of pretending that the myriad cameras clicking around him don't exist
When he arrived on Capitol Hill on Monday for a series of preliminary meetings, he was followed by photographers
Instead of casting his gaze into the middle distance as he walked from one office to another, it was often focused directly into a camera's
The result was that he appeared startled and confused
His claustrophobic circumstances are palpable in his eyes
He does not exude control
He looks like he wants to flee.One suspects that once Zuckerberg finishes his Washington grilling, he will return to Silicon Valley and to
uniform that he claimed for himself, the clothes that gave him one less thing to think about every day but that also helped to define him as
the youthful entrepreneur who upended communications, news-gathering, advertising and countless other things that we probably don't even
There may be some sense of relief and comfort in slipping on one of his trusty gray T-shirts
But the days when it symbolized daring and innovation are over
It is now emblematic of recklessness
Has he outgrown itZuckerberg is one of the suits now
The question is whether he can ever get comfortable in one.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent
staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
