Get ready for some snark. When I watched Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s live streamed announcement of Facebook Messages this week I was struck by a couple of things: his presumptuousness, the insular feeling of the event and his lack of speaking ability.

First, his presumptuousness (aka arrogance): "Talking with high schoolers makes me feel really old," he told the audience in a San Francisco hotel. Tell me about it. Blogging about 26-year-olds makes me feel old.

But really… he and a team of 15 engineers spent 15 months developing Facebook Messages, partially based on Mark Z.‘s conversations with his girlfriend’s sister, who is in high school. I’d call that an "insular" development process, given Facebook’s 500 million users. It’s an email system that is, wait, not an email system but if you want to use it that way you’ll have to use an @facebook.com email address and you won’t have subject lines for your messages because who cares about those anyway. Some of us do. They’re pretty useful.

Are we being strangled by Facebook?

Facebook’s new system doesn’t replace email per se; it’s a "messaging experience" that combines email, texting, IMing and social media updates. It’s all about casual communication. Because that’s all any of us do, right? OMG. Spare me. Am I the only person who is starting to feel strangled by Facebook’s increasing hold on my online experience. Are we all brainwashed?

It makes me want to run the other way. And it makes me wonder if others don’t feel the same way. I don’t want Mark Z. telling me how to handle my "messaging." Is this a new activity? Gotta run and do my "messaging." Facebook’s hold on our content is scary. They’ve got it all: words, pictures, links, videos. Yes, I know there’s now a way to download our data but I haven’t had time to check it out. Apparently it requires multiple steps.

Re public speaking, have you heard about Steve Jobs?

So I’ve covered presumptuous and insular. How about public speaking? You’d think Mark Z. (and his Facebook handlers) could afford the best in presentation training. Mark, you get points for smiling but other than that your presentation abilities are mediocre at best. In fact, listening to you makes me realize I’m a pretty good speaker. (Read these spot-on speaking tips from Mitch Joel. I use them all myself.) BTW, have you heard about Steve Jobs? He also has a world stage everytime he speaks; i.e. everyone listens. But he takes advantage of it.

Oh, and about those high schoolers? I’m more than twice your age, Mark. And you make me feel wise, not old.

Snark rant over.

Posted via email  from Debbie Weil’s Posterous

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