The Social Network

Where it all began – Erica dumps Mark	Scribbling the “Most Popular” Algorithm

Being on Facebook as a part of my Marketing Research, this one was a must watch!

The partial bio-pic (I say partial as they say the portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg is in a more negative light than the actual person) of the conversations, events that lead to the inception of the idea of Facebook, the creation of a website that currently garners view-time of 7 hrs in a month and whose membership is increasing, with a count of 500 million to date.

The chain of events leading to Facebook, it seems, was born out of a howcanagirldumpme-bruised ego, coding in drunken stupor, overnight. His “face-smash” caught the attention of the Winklevoss bro’s (refer W-twins) who were thinking of a Harvard connect – a mini facebook concept. While Mark liked the concept, he expanded the idea around it and created facebook without bothering to inform the W-twins. Jealous of his only friend Eduardo Saverin’s acceptance into an exclusive group in Harvard, he exploits his finances and contacts to popularize the website. Charismatic Napster founder, Sean Parker, uses his contacts to get plum-VC contacts to pump in funds to facebook, putting Saverin in the back-foot. Mark chooses to betray his friend where it hurts most, liquidating Saverin’s share of stock from 30% to a mere 0.03%. The W-twins and Saverin sue Mark Zuckerberg and get settlement . End of plot.

Mark’s character portrayal is similar to “Big Bang Theory”s Sheldon Cooper – both are obsessed with the field they are in, consider the quest for knowledge to be infinitely superior to monetary advantages, have a cocky know-it-all attitude, a tendency to show off their extended English vocabulary. Jealousy plays a role in destroying a genuine relationship. But he shows guilt and a touch of remorse, when Sean Parker taunts Saverin, and when later into the night Parker gets himself into a police-drug-bust; then you see a spark of emotion- absent in him throughout the movie.

The humor is smart, the direction slick. The cool start-up culture, with its “jacked-in” coders, work hard party harder is showcased really well here. Loved the idea of recruiting coders through the tequila shot-stop-code-shot method ! It is a culture that states brilliance is at its creative best when the subject is in a high – we’ve seen that in Swordfish; the IITians I’ve come across partied harder into the night before a toughie quiz.

Some people!

Picture sources: onlinemovieshut.com, cheri-movie.com

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