Zuckerberg offline

The Russian holidays of the founder of the social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg ended with a meeting with students of Moscow State University, where the idol of advanced youth and the recipient of an endless number of “likes” appeared in all his glory as an Internet genius and an unpretentious American billionaire in a shabby T-shirt and sneakers from the times of some Intel Pentium II.

Getting into the fundamental library of the university, where Zuckerberg’s lecture was scheduled, seemed as difficult to implement as, for example, adding the lecturer himself as a friend. The contrast was immediately felt between the recent visit of Patriarch Kirill, where students were herded at the command of the administration, ensuring proper attendance, and the “patriarch” of social networks Mark. Another two hours before the start, a huge queue stretched out in front of the entrance, in order to get the opportunity to stand in which, those wishing to go through pre-registration, after which a lottery from 8 thousand applications selected about a thousand lucky ticket holders. There were no speculators around.

photo ITAR-TASS

The charming red-haired guy, even though he was forty minutes late, was greeted by the audience with an ovation. Instead of the promised lecture, Zuckerberg had an interview with the founder of Zeptolab, Mikhail Lyalin, who came accompanied by a character from his famous game Cut the Rope. A soft toy named Om Nom will apparently also soon get its own personal Facebook page, like everything that falls into the hands of its founder.

Mark Zuckerberg, with a condescending smile, talked a lot about various Facebook clones, while forgetting to mention the VKontakte website, which is well known to Russian users. Probably, while in Russia, he was tired of talking about “Pasha Durov and Co.,” just as you were tired of the phrase “PussyRiot.” But he gave the example of one of the social networks in Germany, which they managed to oust due to the main advantage of Facebook - the ability to communicate with people all over the world, and not just with compatriots. “Although, everyone will prefer the social network that their friends use,” he admitted.

During his stay in Moscow, Zuckerberg discovered his talents as a fashion designer, having managed to dress Prime Minister Medvedev, several hundred students, and the rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy, who at the end of the evening on stage and donned a new sweatshirt with the inscription Facebook.

The meeting lasted no more than an hour and was unexpectedly interrupted by a message from the dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Elena Vartanova, that Mark was late for the plane, which he was extremely surprised by. During all this time, he managed to answer only a few questions from a thick stack of sheets collected in the auditorium. “Why should a journalism student use Facebook?” “You try and find out,” Zuckerberg answered someone. He was also reminded of the abandonment of his studies at Harvard: “What can you advise students, are you a dropout?” - Lyalin asked. “Why is everyone clapping?” answered the creator of the Internet empire, which in 2012 was valued at $104 billion, smiling bewilderedly.

“In a couple of years, I plan to fly to Russia again, and we will continue the conversation,” promised Mark, apparently having learned from Dmitry Medvedev about the existing unspoken tradition of coming to Moscow State University again.

That evening, students of the country's main university saw live the same cool guy who invented Facebook. In such cases, they say: let’s go virtual with him.

Envy us, Pleshka and HSE students :)