The Social Network

The Social Network

The two hour film The Social Network attempts to enlighten the audience concerning the origins of Facebook. I think it’s interesting that the movie was based on a non-fiction book by Ben Mezrich called The Accidental Billionaire. According to New York Magazine, the author of the book did not consult anyone in the story except for Eduardo Saverin (the co-founder of Facebook who received an undisclosed amount for his settlement). This piece of information makes me question if there was any bias or exaggerations in the story and it makes me discredit any events in the movie as being real or accurately portraying what happened in real life. But it’s a drama, not a documentary so it doesn’t have to be accurate.

From watching the movie, I understand the creation of Facebook as something that came out of an emotionally stunted college student starved for attention, recognition and status. There are several characters in the film who fit the bill, but I believe the film was focused mostly on Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. The portrayal of Zuckerberg in the film was really familiar. I once worked with a person in the field of IT who reminded me a lot of Zuckerberg. He is basically an “all-knowing” asshole with very little care for ethical concerns. Being able to identify Zuckerberg as that character made me not like him so much almost instantly (although I had long disliked him before watching the film).

The film highlighted genius, greed and betrayal. To summarize the plot: A smart kid takes someone else’s idea behind their back, and creates a multi-billion dollar empire by essentially screwing people over. What message does this say about our culture? Are we really so cut-throat and starved for attention that we're willing to screw people over? Are we really so conceited that we think our status updates or wall posts are words of brilliance? I think this film ties into a previous video we saw in class. The U.S. is ranked poorly among other countries in almost everything except for confidence. I think too many people are overconfident without any justifiable merit. Zuckerberg is a smart kid who gets credit for his much deserved brilliance, but did his need for attention and status lead him to betray his "only friend"? Maybe.