The Social Network

This past weekend, I went to see the film The Social Network. It is based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. It is also a fictional version of the life of the Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg. The film portrays the success and difficulties of the Harvard sophomore studying computer programming. Zuckerberg's character, Jesse Eisenberg, gets into an argument with his girlfriend and in his depressing haste he blogs about the breakup. In the film, because of these events, he develops the idea for The Facebook. In subsequent scenes in the movie, the viewer sees the jealousy, hurt, and betrayal between Zuckerberg and his friends. Zuckerberg went through years of court hearings and litigations that accuse him of stealing intellectual property and other betraying acts. As I watched this film, I kept asking myself why a Harvard sophomore would be, excuse me, "dumb" enough to post hurtful statements on the internet and betray friends and partners? At what point would you stop and say, "enough is enough?"

If I were attempting to build a business or some kind of start-up website, I would not have my friends come into business with me. I think this might be the first fault of Zuckerberg's character. I would rather employ individuals that knew what they were doing; however, if my friends happen to be genious computer programmers, that would help. Secondly, I would try to go about it in a legally responsible way. Zuckerberg's character seemed to know an awful lot about computer hacking and accessing information that was not necessarily public information. At the same time, I could understand that in order to be a standout business or to have a top-notch idea, sometimes the rules need to be broken.

I know some of you are planning to see the film, so I won't go into detail about the rest of the film. If you do end up seeing the movie, or if you already have, I'm interested if you thought the same thing about the unethical decisions Zuckerberg's character made throughout the film.

Also, the title of this blog links to an article that talks about the REAL Mark Zuckerberg. Enjoy!