Social Network

After seeing the new hit movie Social Network which provides a fictional story (combined with some truths) about how Facebook was created, I really started to realize how Facebook and social networking have changed our world in just a couple of years.

Aside from the obvious, of course social media has implemented huge societal changes. But the movie did an excellent job of portraying all the simple things that you check on Facebook or social media on a daily basis that you would not have utilized even in the past couple of years. One scene portrays a friend of Mark Zuckerberg asking him if he knows one of the girls in his classes or if she seemed single. Nowadays, the typical protocol is to check on Facebook...and if it's not visible, you text a mutual friend. Simple features taken advantage of everyday that did not exist even a few years ago.

I would love to do research or just generally look into how internet and communication have evolved since 2000. So many changes, so quickly...I don't know what I would do without them. YouTube is only five years old, what did people do without YouTube? Google is now fast enough as to when you type something into the search bar, it live-updates what the results and order will be. There are millions of people on Twitter who update their statuses on an hourly basis- because why share your thoughts with real people when you can share them with your entire internet network? I can post a Facebook status and yield 50 comments in less than 8 hours. Why send engagement announcements when Facebook told everyone already?

Just some interesting thoughts that occur in my head as I ponder the effects of social media from this movie. We place so much stress in America on being #1 and doing "what's cool" and being "on top" that Mark would not let Eduardo, his business partner, monetize Facebook with advertisements for so long. Heck, now Facebook is worth $25 million....but if at any point, he would have failed, both of them would have been completely jeopardized monetarily and occupation-wise.

Another point the movie proposed was copyrighting ideas. Oddly enough, in J2100 (News), last week's lesson was media law and I was clearly taught that ideas cannot be copyrighted, pieces of work can, so I had a pretty strong viewpoint on this when two groups were suing Mark Zuckerberg for funds- one for the idea (the Winklevoss crew), and Eduardo for his lack of ownership. It taught me that honestly, if I ever have a huge media idea, to pursue it myself and maybe with someone you love and trust. Eduardo and Mark lost their friendship over this, had dumb revenge games, and while they were college students...they should be mature adults. When I think of how to dominate the world via internet, I am avoiding the ridiculousness of lawsuits by doing it alone and hiring people of lower positions later....I do not have the patience for ownership rights arguments and more. This also teaches us to define things in the beginning and let it out there so people are not disappointed, confused or excessively angry later.

Thus, Social Network was a great movie in my opinion. The anti-climactic ending was disappointing considering it was fiction, but it definitely spurred a couple of laughs within the media law and creation controversy. Watching it with two members of Alpha Epsilon Pi...the Jewish fraternity, made the movie's references to that even more amusing for our entire aisle, who burst into laughter. I would recommend you see it and then realize for yourself all the ways you take advantage of social media and Facebook without noticing it!