"The Social Network" Explores Radical Friendships in a New Era

Note: This review was originally written in 2010. With the exception of correcting some spelling errors, it is being presented as it was originally published.

Why do we look for acceptance in the world? The answer is easy: We want to be liked. Maybe even loved. Mark Zuckerberg (played with strong personality by Jesse Eisenberg) was like everyone else in so many ways and different in so many others. He’s a jerk. He’s cruel. When his girlfriend dumps him, he creates a website designed specifically to insult and humiliate her. When confronted about a problem, he will argue back with you with snarky comments and intellect. But as one character puts it, “[Mark’s] not a bad person; [he] just tries to be a bad person.” Why would anyone do this? Easy: He wants to be accepted. I’ve heard David Fincher’s The Social Network was about the creation of Facebook.

In some ways, this is true. The story of a website that was designed in a college dorm and would become the biggest social tool of the new millennium, changing the way people communicate with each other and making its creator the world’s youngest billionaire in the process, is certainly a story worth telling. This is what half the movie is about. After the public humiliation of his girlfriend, Mark starts to ponder why the site became popular. He realizes that people like looking other people up. What if you could put the college experience online? Meet someone at a party and then look them up later on? What if there was a reference point where you could find out if a girl is single, dating someone, or interested in other girls before the humiliating process of asking her out?

All this he put online. Of course, there was the issue of whose idea it was first, seeing that he was supposed to create a similar site for a couple of other Harvard students who ended up suing him for stealing their idea. He goes into business with his best friend Eduardo (Andrew Garfield), but Facebook truly gets started with the help of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who founded Napster years ago and feels that Facebook is the next revolutionary idea he needs to get back to the top. All the while, Facebook continues to gain more and more subscribers, and the website ends up being worth billions of dollars. The movie is told mainly through flashbacks during lawyer meetings where everyone gets to tell their side of the story.

Everyone seems to notice that Mark is getting bored, but he is also troubled by the allegations. Early in the film, he makes a statement that he wants to get into the exclusive Final Club at Harvard. Because—in his words—“They are fun. And Exclusive. And they lead to a better life.” This quote carries significant weight throughout the film. Yes, Mark created Facebook. But he never gets into that exclusive club. His friend does, but he does not. He and his best friend get to go out and get laid by a couple of pretty girls based on the fact that they created the website. But at the end of his day, his friend gets a girlfriend, while he simply gets a one-night stand. He makes millions of dollars, but it costs him the only relationship he really has.

It’s worth noting that when Sean throws a party to celebrate reaching 1,000,000 subscribers, Mark has not been invited to the party. The only friends he has are online. I read a comment from movie satire cartoonist and commentator Tom Brazelton, who found it reprehensible that an introvert was leading the way in a social revolution. I feel this is a misguided understanding, for an introvert is the perfect person to lead the way to a social revolution. Introverts like staying indoors. They have problems connecting with people on an emotional level. They want to “connect” with people but have no way to do it. Mark took the ideal life he wanted to have and put it in a place where someone who doesn’t get out often and (worse) isn’t invited to the parties can have a social life that works.

It’s there for everyone to see, but there’s enough detachment there to make it manageable. The Social Network is about so many things at once. It’s about the creation of Facebook. It’s about Mark Zuckerberg. It’s about business politics. Most of all, though, it’s about how we communicate and relate to each other. With Facebook as big as it is, I find myself concerned about where this is all going. I have over 200 friends on Facebook. But how many of those people call me personally? I don’t want to share that number, but suffice it to say it’s not much. I also admit that, being an introvert who has always had difficulty making friends, I relate to Mark’s dilemma. Truth be told, I was quite the jerk myself growing up.

I was mean, rude, and insulted people. Why? Because I got noticed when I was a jerk. The look in Mark’s eyes says that he hates that he can be so cruel, but it’s the only way he knows how to get people’s attention sometimes. By the end of the film, so much information and emotion have run through the screen that it’s staggering. It’s wildly entertaining AND a great social commentary on where we’re socially heading! This is David Fincher’s best film to date. In fact, this IS the best film of the year! It takes the best movies have to offer and runs wild with them. Years later, Facebook will only be bigger, and this movie will be seen as an odd cautionary tale. It will also be seen as a deeply personal drama about the human soul and its need to be recognized.