The Social Network

Facebook defines the 2000's. Not only did it redefine how social networking behaved online, it also reworked how people interacted in general. President Obama revamped how politics were done by investing heavily into online campaigning, especially on Facebook (USN, 2008). “The Social Network” takes us through the creation of Facebook, but focuses on two aspects: what happens to the people behind the 'revolution', and, interestingly, how our own social lives were recreated in tandem. “The Social Network” stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin. The movie takes place mainly in Harvard and California, always keeping close to Mark, and begins in 2003 and ends at some point near the present, though this reviewer had difficulty pinpointing the exact date. “The Social Network” is a drama-comedy, but the undercurrent surrounding how Facebook changed our social lives is more cynical than funny, especially at the closing scene. The movie is, however, hardly a documentary and commonly plays up and down certain events, or even invents them altogether, for dramatic effect. The message that Facebook was not a stolen idea is repeatedly beat over the viewer's head and Mark Zuckerberg's motives for creating Facebook in the first place are two examples of this exaggeration. Nevertheless, as a movie, “The Social Network” portrays the events surrounding Facebook's, and our own social behaviors', creation with an unexpected amount of excitement and passion.
 

“The Social Network” opens with Mark and his girlfriend in a pub. We instantly get a feel for Mark's character: he is very smart, but socially awkward at best and a jerk at worse. Mark is concerned with getting into one of the finals clubs at Harvard, and he tells his girlfriend that she essentially needs him to get into one of these so she can go places in her career; otherwise, she'll never make it. He is swiftly dumped and returns to his dorm in Harvard to blog about it. Afterwards, Mark hacks into Harvard's students' picture database and sets up “FaceMash”, a site which compares two girls and asks the visitor to click whichever is hotter. This breach of security lands Mark in front of a school review board. Mark continues to be as arrogant and awkward as before, yet the viewer still manages to feel that Mark is the hero, and his brief suspension is so played down that it appears almost innocuous. Mark is then approached by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) with an idea for a social networking website called “HarvardConnection”. Mark agrees to work on the website, but actually begins work on “Thefacebook”. After taking Eduardo on as his business partner, Mark launches “Thefacebook”with great success. The Winklevoss twins launch a suit against Mark after several cease and desist attempts fail. Meanwhile Mark encounters Sean, the jobless creator of Napster, and begins alienating Eduardo. Sean weasels his way into the company by presenting Mark with an alternative: rather than generating money from advertisers, he can sell shares in Facebook. Sean is portrayed as a nearly cut-throat con-artist who uses Mark to not only give him shares in Facebook, but also to eliminate Eduardo from the company. Eduardo, all the while, tries to convince Mark to ignore Sean despite his weakening hold on the company. Eduardo is eventually cut out of Facebook altogether and launches a suit against Mark as well. 

“The Social Network” presents an interesting tale about the lives of the creators of Facebook, but it also acts as a retrospective on how radically different our social behavior has become. Early in the movie, we see Mark talking with many people; this appears unimportant, but as the movie progresses, we see much more focus on computers than on dialogue. Of particular interest is the comparison of two scenes: first, when Mark first sets up Thefacebook, he implores Eduardo, now a member of one of the finals clubs Mark so desperately wanted to get into, to give him a list of the member's e-mail addresses; second, Eduardo gets into an argument with his girlfriend near the end of the movie because he had not changed his Facebook relationship status from 'single' to 'in a relationship'. In the first scene, we see that physical, social relationships are highly important; Mark simply has no way of contacting this illustrious club without Eduardo's help. In the second, we see that the 'Facebook relationship' is more important than the real one; Eduardo is accused of not caring simply because he has not changed his status. Currently, Facebook functions in much the same respect, and yet has become even more far-reaching than how it is portrayed in “The Social Network”. Job interviewers commonly check prospective employees' Facebook pages before offering a job. Physical networking is almost anachronistic, and “The Social Network” presents the gradation of networking almost cynically, especially with the closing scene.

“The Social Network” provides an entertaining story with some unique, if not fully real, characters. The most impressive meaning to be gleaned from the movie, however, is how our own sense of networking has changed through the invention of Facebook. The documentary-esque style may trick some people into believing that the real-life people behind Facebook acted and behaved in the same fashion, but much of the 'drama' is completely fictional. Overall, the movie is well done, entertaining, and offers a slightly dark take on our lives, but may lead viewers down the wrong path about what the minds behind Facebook were really like.