Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Social Network

The Social Network, although perhaps a dramatized depiction of the creation of the social networking site Facebook, proved to be a riveting example of the birth of an idea in our modern digital age and the consequences that follow.

Mark Zuckerberg applied his perspectives and observations on his real college life and adapted them to the web. He noticed the college student’s fixation on relationships and hook-ups, he noticed the attraction of “reliving” a party online through the photos and comments of everyone at the party, and he had the technical abilities to make this possible. For all this to become essential to be a part of, however, Zuckerberg needed to find an angle: exclusivity. By making Facebook exclusive, Mark made it desired and almost necessary to be a part of. It was a new level to connect with your friends on and to network and if you were not a part of it, you were missing out.

Not only did the story line reflect the fast-paced immediacy of an internet sensation, but also the way the movie was constructed. Almost every character spoke incredibly fast and the film quickly cut back and forth between the story line and two secondary plot lines of the lawsuits.

Overall, the film provided a great look into the corporate complications and behind-the-scenes, “real life” drama that are innate in any great idea that makes it big while translating how such a situation is amplified by the internet’s capabilities to spread an idea and hype instantly.

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