“The Social Network”

Member since: November 30, 2004.

It’s not really a momentous occasion in my life, but it’s something I remember. The only reason I do remember the exact date I joined Facebook is because sign-up dates were part of the member profile for its first couple of years. When I joined, it was still a site specifically for college students and it seemed I got there just before most of my friends. From my small window at New Paltz, I was able to observe much of Facebook’s evolution and expansion into the world’s predominant social networking site. The terms “Facebook me” or “I’ll find you on Facebook” became part of the lexicon. Hell, I can still remember when the big thing to do on the site was to poke someone.

Now there’s The Social Network, a film depicting the creation of the website, from its inception at Harvard by founder Mark Zuckerberg to its rise to global phenomenon. Directed by David Fincher with a crackerjack script by Aaron Sorkin, it’s adapted from The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Turns out that the greatest social media site in the world was the indirect result of a break-up. The film starts with this scene, introducing us immediately to Jesse Eisenberg‘s Zuckerberg and tells us everything we need to know about this wunderkind genius. Eisenberg has been known for playing quirky, awkward nerds in a wide variety of films from The Squid and the Whale to Zombieland. In The Social Network he reaches a career pinnacle, with a sobering, captivating performance that is guaranteed to bring him an Oscar nomination.

The film has Oscar written all over it: Picture, Director, Screenplay, Editing. Using Zuckerberg’s various law suit depositions as a framing device (which works brilliantly), the film is able to simultaneously depict the cause and effect of the website and its impact on the world with great clarity. Sorkin’s brittle, rapid-fire dialogue sparkles from beginning to end; he had me from that brilliant break-up to the final image. Fincher’s direction is spare and the pacing is expressively fast. The film rarely gives the viewer a chance to breathe and that only adds to the overall experience, laughing at a smart-ass line one second, feeling rage the next. The Social Network is brittle, brutal and unflinching.

There’s a great chance for Justin Timberlake, playing Napster founder Sean Parker as my buddy Matt put it, “our generation’s Gordon Gekko,” to receive a supporting actor nomination. Even better and more deserving of a nomination and a win is Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg’s best friend, business partner and subject of the greatest betrayal. Later, I was rather surprised to realize I was feeling sorry for someone (Saverin) whose net worth is now $1.1 billion.

Interestingly enough, while I was expecting myself to hate Zuckerberg (I’m no fan of his misguided theories regarding privacy), but I found myself surprisingly empathetic. Whether or not the depiction in the film is 100% accurate or not, he is portrayed as a near tragic anti-hero rather than a villain (the real villain of Sorkin’s script is Parker). He’s a genius, someone with an arrogant need to prove his intelligence and lacking in all social graces, which seemed to speak more to Asperger’s or crippling social awkwardness than anything else. I was floored by the character’s dialogue, and Eisenberg’s seemingly effortless domination of the film, particularly those scenes in deposition. And for the record: I don’t think Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from the Winklevoss twins or anyone else.

Even if Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t invented Facebook, he’d still be the youngest billionaire in history and the subject to our interest and scorn. Like artists, inventors and other men of genius, Zuckerberg seems to be that sort of man understands the world better than most, but has great difficulty participating in it. He’d still have found a way to change the way the world interacts with one another. Rashida Jones plays the assistant to Zuckerberg’s lawyer and she is not only a rare sympathetic presence but is there to ask the questions I think most people would like to ask Zuckerberg (well, at least those I had while watching). As the credits rolled, I turned to my friend and said, “It’s lonely at the top.”

After the film I spent an hour talking, seemingly nonstop, about the film, its reflection on our society and how much our daily lives are impacted by social media. I don’t think it’s an entirely negative thing, myself, but I understand more fully why some people are loath to join these various sites and the overwhelming need people have to maintain some semblance of privacy in an world that becomes more and more transparent every day. As the story progressed during the film, I thought to myself “I remember when that happened” and it unexpectedly became a reflection of my own college experience and post-graduate life. (On a tangent there is no love lost in the film for Harvard life, depicted as one of great privilege and arrogance).

I’m a blogger because I’m a writer and will never profess to be anything but a Luddite when it comes to computer science, but it’s interesting to see the ways Zuckerberg has impacted my own life. Many of my friends are people I know through my blog and our distance makes Facebook and Twitter the ideal platforms for keeping in touch. I still prefer long-form writing but with computers, e-mail, blogging, and now micro-blogging, using a pen seems to be as passe as the 8-track. That’s what has changed – these sites make the world smaller and our connections more immediate than ever. However, I do remain very conscious of what I write and make it a point to maintain some privacy in my life. No one needs to know every single thing about me, which is something that many tend to forget when dealing with the online world. As Zuckerberg’s ex girlfriend in the film says “It’s not written in pencil, it’s written in ink.” Whether or not this is a good thing has yet to be determined, but regardless we can’t unring that bell.