WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a rare glimpse of personal nostalgia, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reminisced Monday about the first time he browsed the internet unsupervised, a formative moment he claims shaped both his career and the destiny of the digital age.
“It was a magical time,” Zuckerberg said during President Trump’s inauguration. “When you’re around the people who brought you some of your favorite websites, you can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia.”
According to Zuckerberg, the moment was not only liberating but life-changing. “I didn’t even know where to begin,” he continued, describing the intoxicating thrill of typing ‘www’ into Netscape Navigator. “I clicked on links with reckless abandon—GeoCities fan pages, Ask Jeeves searches, and even a site with MIDI files of popular songs. For a few hours, I felt like I had all the knowledge of humanity at my fingertips.”
Zuckerberg paused to reflect, admitting that the experience was not without its dangers.
The Meta CEO also acknowledged that his unsupervised internet days inspired his current vision for the metaverse. “The way I felt exploring those early web pages—the wonder, the chaos, the sense of infinite potential—that’s what I want to recreate for every human being.”