Mark Zuckerberg Facebook co-founder (CEO ) and founder has been named Time Magazine’s

Mark Zuckerberg Facebook co-founder (CEO ) and founder has been named Time Magazine’s person of the year 2010. Wikileaks’ Julian Assange may have been the people’s choice for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year award, but as the publication’s elaborate cover story reveals today, the editors instead chose Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Perhaps that’s fair given that Facebook has been a main way that Wikileaks has provided its trove of secrets to the world.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been named Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2010, joining the ranks of winners that include heads of state and rock stars as the person the magazine believes most influenced events of the past year. At 26, Zuckerberg is the youngest “Person of the Year” since the first one chosen, Charles Lindbergh; he was 25 when he was named in 1927, Time said Wednesday. Zuckerberg beat out Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II by just two weeks: She was 26 when she was named in 1952. Incidentally, Queen Elizabeth II has recently joined Zuckerberg’s social networking behemoth. Time’s “Person of the Year” is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke received the honor last year. The 2008 winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama. The 2007 winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Other previous winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush, and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. In naming Zuckerberg, Time cited him “for changing how we all live our lives.”

It is really mind-boggling to think about how much Mark Zuckerberg has effected the way we interact in the Internet age. Millions and millions of people exchange personal information with one another every second of every day on Facebook. It is the single most popular website in the world … and it all started as a lark on one fated booze-infused night at Harvard University. It’s just … insane. After the jump, check out a few photos of Zuckerberg from this Person of the Year issue of Time and read more about how he was selected and what he thinks of the honor.

The 26-year-old is the second youngest person to be given the honor. The youngest was Charles Lindbergh, who was only 25 when he was Time magazine’s very first Man of the Year back in 1927.

Runner-ups were the Tea Party, Julian Assange from WikiLeaks, Hamid Karzai, leader of Afghanistan, and the Chilean miners.

According to Time, the nod went to Zuckerberg because he “created a system of exchanging information that has become both indispensable and sometimes a little frightening. It has changed our lives in ways that are both innovative and even optimistic.”