The Social Network accurately comments on the fast-paced, cutthroat world of business on cyberspace and the constant flow of creative destruction. Creative destruction is a term coined by Joseph A. Schumpeter in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy that is based off of Marxist economic theory. Creative destruction [1] discusses the necessary destruction of old orders inherent in capitalism, in order to make way for new systems. This is apparent in the scene where Saverin sees the cease-and-desist letter for the first time. Zuckerberg states, “The grounds are our thing is cool and popular, and The Harvard Connection is lame! Wardo, I didn’t use any of their code, I promise, I didn’t use anything! Look, a guy who builds a nice chair doesn’t owe money to everyone who ever has built a chair. They came to me with an idea, I had a better one.” Later, during the deposition, Zuckerberg says that if the Winklevosses had invented Facebook, “They would have invented Facebook.”[2] (Jon Stewart recently joked that the Bush administration is like the Winkevosses of killing Bin Laden; if they killed Bin Laden, then they would have killed Bin Laden.) The point is that some ideas have to die, or brutally sacrificed to irrelevancy, in order to make room for faster, “cooler,” ideas. This is truer than ever on the Internet.
The brutality and the speed of which creative destruction can strike online, creates the need for website developers to be a million steps ahead of their competition and to truly know their audience. This is somewhere Facebook has been brilliant. In the film, Saverin is hoping to get advertising industry giants on board, but Parker and Zuckerberg are wary about putting advertising on the site; it might turn people away before the website really explodes. “You don’t even know what the thing is yet. How big it can get, how far it can go. This is no time to take your chips down. A million dollars isn’t cool, you know what’s cool?” Parker rhetorically asked. “A billion dollars,” Saverin repeated at the deposition.[3] By being innovative and ‘cool,’ and not thinking about traditional business models, Facebook could become a billion dollar website. Now it has become worth way more. Part of the reason is that Facebook is constantly changing to try and make the site more innovative, clean, fast, and especially “cool.” The option to “become a fan” has changed into “liking.” One can “like” comments now, as well. Overnight, this term has made its way into mainstream vernacular. Also, Facebook chat, or chatting through the website using your real name/picture rather than the screenname/buddy icon combination popularized by AIM, has made AIM completely disappear off the face of the earth. No one asks for a screenname anymore, they Facebook chat. This has evolved from a couple of years ago, when it was still considered semi-creepy to use Facebook chat.
Facebook refuses to make the same mistakes Myspace did; Myspace took it for granted that it was a website everyone used, they did not compulsively change or streamline. The downfall of Myspace was that profile pages were cluttered with too much variable content. Videos, music, colors, HTML—all of it made each individual page too difficult to load. “Top 8s” caused fights between friends because it, too, was too flexible. There were way too many advertisements that also cluttered the interface. All the messages a user would get would be from an aspiring model or band. They lacked the minimalism and exclusiveness of Facebook, and they lacked the “cool.” Myspace was so obsessed with turning a profit that they embraced the musician/model takeover and didn’t think that social circles are why users kept logging in. Facebook capitalized on this void and made Myspace largely irrelevant in a similar fashion to how it squeezed out Harvard Connection. The Social Network effectively demonstrates the power of speed and innovation needed to succeed in the business of cyber-culture.
[1] Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper, 1950. Print.
[2] The Social Network. Dir. David Fincher. Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield. Columbia Pictures, 2010. DVD.
[3] The Social Network. Dir. David Fincher. Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield. Columbia Pictures, 2010. DVD.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post and like the way you integrated creative destruction into your critique. I also liked how you went into detail on the some of the pitfalls that led to the demise of Myspace. The improvements made by Facebook were for the benefit of the user, which is why Facebook has been so successful.