Washington - Mark Zuckerberg finally has his Harvard
degree. The Facebook CEO and famous college dropout left the Ivy League
university 12 years ago to found the social network, but he returned Thursday
to pick up a honorary doctor of laws degree and drop some wisdom on the class
of 2017.
In prepared remarks provided to The Washington Post ahead
of the speech, Zuckerberg called on his alma mater's newest graduates to tackle
major, ambitious "public works" projects that bring together masses
of people for the general benefit of society. He noted that many technologies -
including some being developed at Facebook - are changing the world and also
presenting new challenges.
"You're graduating at a time when this is especially
important," Zuckerberg said in the prepared remarks. "When our
parents graduated, purpose reliably came from your job, your church, your
community. But today, technology and automation are eliminating many jobs.
Membership in communities is declining. Many people feel disconnected and
depressed, and are trying to fill a void."
Zuckerberg, 33, is the youngest person to deliver a
Harvard commencement speech, according to Facebook - a fact that he wanted to
highlight to the crowd. "We walked this yard less than a decade apart,
studied the same ideas and slept through the same lectures," his speech
said. "We may have taken different paths to get here, but today I want to
share what I've learned about our generation and the world we're building
together."
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Some of Zuckerberg's remarks echo the manifesto he
published earlier this year, outlining how he saw Facebook's mission as
establishing a "social infrastructure" for the world. But the central
theme of Zuckerberg's address was to call on young people to create a world
where "everyone has a sense of purpose" by looking beyond their own
needs.
"I'm not here to give you the standard commencement
about finding your purpose," the speech said "We're millennials.
We'll try to do that instinctively. Instead, I'm here to tell you finding your
purpose isn't enough."
Noting that society will likely see "tens of
millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks"
in the coming years, Zuckerberg called for young people to work on large public
works projects to make new jobs. Though he didn't specify what sorts of
projects those should be, or what hand companies such as Facebook could play in
them, he did cite some past examples.
Zuckerberg noted that previous generations have their own
"defining works" - the Hoover Dam, the space program, the fight
against polio - that pulled them together and imbued America with civic pride.
Citing global problems including climate change and pandemics, Zuckerberg said
that millennials, himself included, understand themselves as global citizens
rather than belonging to any nation-state.
"To keep our society moving forward, we have a generational
challenge - to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of
purpose," he said. "So what are we waiting for? It's time for our
generation-defining public works. Let's do big things, not only to create
progress, but to create purpose."