Mark Zuckerberg ends annual personal challenge for a decade-long one

Mark Zuckerberg is breaking his annual tradition of setting goals for himself for a “longer term focus” like building a new private social platform.

Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a long post about his future plans but this time it’s different. (REUTERS)

Mark Zuckerberg's New Year's resolution: No more public New Year's resolutions.

The Facebook Inc. chief executive officer, who in January usually shares a "personal challenge" for the coming year, said Thursday he's forgoing that tradition in 2020. Instead, Zuckerberg said he will "take a longer term focus" this decade to prioritize projects that will take much longer to come together.

"Rather than having year-to-year challenges, I've tried to think about what I hope the world and my life will look in 2030 so I can make sure I'm focusing on those things," he wrote on his Facebook page. Among the big ideas he listed: funding millennial "entrepreneurs, scientists and leaders;" building a privacy-focused social platform; developing virtual and augmented reality products; and "establishing new ways for communities to govern themselves," such as his company's new content oversight board.

Facebook is already working on most of the long-term ideas Zuckerberg laid out in his post, making them arguably less personal than past challenges. Some of the CEO's pledges have also opened him up to criticism. Last year, Zuckerberg resolved to "host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society -- the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties." In his talks related to the pledge, he spoke almost exclusively to white men.

In 2017, Zuckerberg resolved to visit all 50 states, a countrywide tour that spawned rumors that he wanted to run for president. Prior challenges included learning Mandarin and a promise to only eat meat that he killed himself.