What Harvard graduates saw from Mark Zuckerberg's commencement speech: Humility

"My Snapchat is frozen. Must be 'cause Zuck is nearby," a Harvard undergraduate joked Thursday as he stared at his phone. A few rain-soaked yards away, Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, was giving her commencement address for the Class of 2017.

Faust's speech was on freedom of speech and the need to listen to ideologies different than your own. The undergraduate, a member of the choir, was too busy trying to access the Snapchat Stories of his closest friends to listen. His joke was a reflection of what is dominating headlines about Facebook: less about freedom of speech, more about copying all of Snapchat's features.

A few minutes later, the student put down the phone. A damp and listless crowd moved to attention. Surrounded by the usual top hats and fancy attire found at a Harvard University Commencement, Facebook CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, a member of the Class of 2004 who famously never graduated, took the stage to speak.

The rain-and the fact that graduates had already received their degrees earlier in the day-meant Harvard Yard was well less than half full. Of course, those missing people could watch Zuckerberg's speech live on Facebook from anywhere in the world.

For those, like the Snapchat-loving student who sat in front me, it was a moment to watch one of the richest people in the world reminisce on his college years at a shared institution and offer some advice.

For myself, a business reporter in the audience, it was a chance to see Zuckerberg in a suit and hear him talk to students, rather than to a room full of developers, investors, or journalists like usual. This was a Zuck out of water, though there was plenty of that too.

Read the full article here.