Yes, I know this is supposed to be a book blog. However, I've been reading book club books, and I don't want to report on them until after those book clubs meet! I'm also one third of the way through The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman, so hopefully I'll be able to tell you a bit about that one soon, too.
In the meantime, I'll tell you about The Social Network. This is the movie about Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook. Facebook has become an important part of my daily communications, so how could I pass up this one?
The Social Network is basically about a brilliant programmer who put together his coding skills, some other people's ideas, with some of his own masterful touches to come up with a social networking site that has become commonplace worldwide. The site is, theoretically, intended to bring people together. I'll say in my experience that this has been true sometimes. It's been a good way to get to know a little more about people who have just joined my church, for example. Yet we have all seen how internet activity can also bring people low through bullying or hateful words and deeds.
Facebook, and similar sites, have also changed the definition of "friend." Yes, Facebook has turned the word into a verb, as in "He friended me on Facebook." But if you are judging your success in relationships by the number of friends you have on the site, then your definition of friend may be lacking. In this movie, the people who call each other "friend" are usually friends on the most superficial levels--hookups, roommates, business partners. Each assumes that they know the other person and what that person is capable of. The movie points out that you can know someone's skills, relationship status, interests, and work history without ever really knowing the character of the person.
Zuckerberg, as portrayed, could possibly have Aspergers or something similar, and what he has in technical knowledge, he lacks in ability to follow social cues. I have no idea how accurate this portrayal is, so I go forward on the basis of a character, not the real guy. Thus, the Zuckerberg character who creates a new way to friend people has few friends of his own. He's a would-be social climber with no social prospects.
One small detail, which I can only assume to be a well-used product placement, gave a good clue to the character's wishes. When he is a lowly, broke Harvard student, his wealthy friend and roommate Eduardo is frequently shown wearing a North Face jacket. Later in the movie, when Facebook has exploded and the investors are lining up at the door, Zuckerberg is still alone, but he's wearing his own North Face jacket. It's as if he has begun to acquire the trappings of the social circle he wants to penetrate, but is still unable to be a part of it.
The divisions between people are enhanced throughout the movie. Characters don't go all the way into a room or a building, and when they do they aren't seated with the group or they get up and walk away. They are shown alone, looking longingly at groups of people. Often they are looking through glass walls.
Romantic relationships in the film are the opposite of intimate, based on superficial sexuality or self-centered egotism. The party-hungry lifestyle of just about every character in the movie made me want to go home and lock my children in their rooms until they are 30 (and I wouldn't let them see this movie). No one seemed all that admirable. Even the intelligence failed miserably as each one of them made stupid mistakes at some point in time.
I'm not sure what this movie is saying about society in general, other than to point out dramatically that what passes for a social network can often be no more than a spider's web in which you turn out to be the ensnared fly.
By the way, did I say that I liked this movie? I did. I couldn't quite imagine how the story would translate into a movie, but it does. Justin Timberlake plays a sleazy Sean Parker very well, and I can't help but like the awkward character of Zuckerberg as played by Jesse Eisenberg. While I don't admire any of them, it's hard to hate any of them either. Except Sean Parker. Sorry Justin.
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