Wednesday 19 January 2011

The Social Network (2010) [* * * * *]

This is a movie I had such mixed feelings about that it changed me - I have to give it 5 stars.

The story is a fictionalized version of the creator of Facebook. I was intriqued, appalled and finally impressed by this very complicated human story. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg, an antisocial undergrad computer geek, a social climber who loses his girlfriend and creates this site to prove himself.

Facebook's amazing success leads to lawsuits, charges of theft and losing his only friend. His isolation is very real and touching, yet you're pushed to disliking the cocky nerd. I loved it for the very human dilemma of isolation through net relationships and how suffering follows any success story. It transformed my indifferent use of Facebook because I quit it the very next day. lol!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

hi,
i was thinking of seeing this myself.. so now 5 stars make it a must watch for me..
although i didnt understand why you quit fb after watching it.. cause i wouldnt want to do that..after i watch it :P
thanks

Local said...

hi Shazia,
The motivation for starting fb was very different from my use. I felt enlightened about the constant concern I had for my privacy - I learnt that it was designed for it.

I'd been on orkut and irc before fb for a few years and been puzzled by the degree of rot in them. (It probably set in faster there because it was organised differently).

Let me know what you think about it, and if you look at fb differently after you see it.:)

Local said...

btw, fb is overvalued at $50B - that's what our private information is worth to the market.;)

The movie is timed for an IPO as well. Goldman Sachs has spent 450 million to acquire fb and will be selling shares in non-US-based exchanges and their own clients http://tinyurl.com/6b8y2r9 hoping to raise $10 billion in the near future.

... fb users are the only product they have!

Unknown said...

:) am more than just anxious to see it.. will surely let you know how I feel when i see it..
however i dont understand what you meant by saying that fb was designed for privacy?
thanks

Local said...

I meant that fb was designed to make you surrender your privacy for your need to socialize.

It was made, in the movie at least, for college guys to pick up girls who revealed their information voluntarily - more likely to be mocked and misused for their effort.

Unknown said...

Hmmm i understand your point now. Fb sure looks like it has motives of its own! Thanks

Local said...

To be fair, all social networking sites are oriented to feeding a woman's need to nest (settle down) and a man's need to compete (collect, expand), so there is always a disconnect.

Also, Zuckerberg was only 22 when he started it, so what can we expect?:)

venkhat said...

am back, will let u know the gap, i quit facebook after a month as all my friends were loosing their privacy.

Unknown said...

hi,
One can control a lot of info now.. and increase the privacy settings so that only a close group could have access to info.. or do you mean that there are ways to unlock info?
@ Venkhat, welcome back! Where did you go? I thought only women went to mayke (mother's place). :) kidding (rofl)

Local said...

Hey gardner, welcome back! I realised about a year ago you weren't very keen on fb, turns out to be with good reason.:)

Shazia, the privacy that most people are worrying about isn't just with the other fb users (which we can control with settings) but with fb's use of your account.

You may not remember that you signed away your right to your details when you signed up for fb. So they can share it with virtually anyone they want - most of your fb info will appear on a simple google search (just as fb can access your gmail acct for your mailing list).

The advertisers on the sidebar and game-companies can access your prefs directly from fb (which is probably how a status update earns fb $2/user).

(There must be more uses like this than I can figure, but a conspiracy theorist would have a lot of fun with it.:)