Zuckerberg’s 2017 challenge is to meet & listen to as many people as he can

Excited to explore more of the United States, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to visit and meet as many people as he can across the nation by the end of 2017.

In a post published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg wrote that he would travel to nearly thirty states by year's end to know how people are living, working and what they are thinking about the future.

Announcing his decision, he wrote, "My hope for this challenge is to get out and talk to more people about how they're living, working and thinking about the future. Recently, I've traveled around the world and visited many cities, and now I'm excited to explore more of our country and meet more people here."

The newly-announced national tour is the latest in Zuckerberg's personal challenges that he sets for himself at the beginning of each year. Previously, he set challenges like running 365 miles, building artificial intelligence (AI) for his home, reading 25 books and learning Chinese language Mandarin.

A few years ago, the young Facebook CEO even kept a vow to eat meat from those animals that would be slaughtered by him.

Zuckerberg's newest challenge is driven by his desire to see how fast-advancing technologies are impacting society - for better or for worse. He believes that hearing from members of the public will not only help him with his work at the social-networking company, but also with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that he runs with his wife Priscilla Chan.