The Social Network

“The Social Network” is a film depicting the rise of one of the most popular websites of all time, Facebook. It focuses on the tribulations that the founding code writer Mark Zuckerberg faces when starting, growing, and establishing Facebook amidst controversy. Controversy with his co-founder Edwardo Saverin that highlights the cut-throat business side of internet ventures. Another controversy was with the Winklevoss twins who came to Zuckerberg with an idea for a Facebook like website. Basically, the movie is an intertwining of trial-like negotiations and a chronological look at the steps it took to build the Facebook phenomenon.

The movie portrays the internet accurately, hitting on many important aspects that make the internet a one of a kind medium. When Zuckerberg blogs, more than inappropriate, things about a girl that just broke up with him she retorts, “The internet is not written in pencil, it is written in ink”[1]. The permanence of the Internet prompts one to watch what they say, and holds one accountable for what they write. This is true in any forum whether it is instant message, blogs, email, and now Facebook. Facebook must attribute some of its intriguing qualities to permanent messages because a log of messages between two people can be valuable memories and enhances information sharing. Another way the movie portrayed the permanence of the internet was when the Winklevosses used emails between them and Zuckerberg as proof that there had been an agreement between them.

One of the internet’s most abused, yet undermined, feature is the fact that it is a completely open expanse of territory. When Zuckerberg and the Winklevosses made such a huge deal over rights to the idea I kept comparing them to two super power countries fighting for land around the globe. Once Zuckerberg was on the war path there was no stopping his powerhouse phenomenon from taking over. It was as if Zuckerberg had the atomic bomb and exhibited manifest destiny eating up the smaller social networks. Now that the physical world map is drawn and doesn’t seem to be changing soon, it will be interesting to see how the ever changing world of the internet will draw it’s map that unlike the globe, is limitless.
[1] The Social Network. Directed by David Fincher. Columbia Pictures, 2010. Film.