Imagine being in college with no social media and no way of communicating with your friends without leaving your bed. In 2004, there was still no real social media like there is today. Mark Zuckerberg cut his teeth at Harvard University, and he saw the same problem that others noticed about the lack of a way for people to connect on the Internet. Though Zuckerberg was socially awkward at some points, he had a particular talent for computers and technology. At a young age, he invented a messaging system that made his dad’s dental practice much more efficient. When Zuckerberg saw an opportunity at Harvard, he used his skills to create something new again. Facebook was born as a small project to connect people at Harvard, but it quickly grew into something more. Today, Facebook dominates the Internet landscape, it impacts the development of politics, and it has literally changed the way people interact with one another. Because of the importance of this movement, a movie was made about Zuckerberg and the development of the site. “Social Network” is mostly true to the facts of what took place with Facebook, though there are some elements that ae made more dramatic for artistic effect.
Facebook is the top communicating website in the world and it all started with one guy who had one big idea he had in college. At first Mark invented “coursematch” this was a game where students can send in their opinion on which girl is the hottest comparing two at a time on the screen. This went viral all over campus. He then had this idea on making a site where people can find their friends online, post pictures, and blog. He spent days and nights on the project. This was represented well in the movie, showing that Zuckerberg had first intended to start something on campus, and never really envisioned what it could become. The movie also accurately represents the way Facebook grew over time. Zuckerberg wanted to expand the website and its access, but he only wanted to do so among the elite colleges in his orbit. This is why he originally expanded only to other Ivy League schools, to select elite schools in England, and to Stanford, in California. The movie shows how the development of Facebook as a business happened quickly once the site began to spread beyond the Harvard campus.
One of the elements in the film that was dramatized was the conflict between Zuckerberg and various parties around him. At the heart of the film is a conflict between Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, his best friend who helped to fund the enterprise in the beginning. The movie plays up the idea that Zuckerberg harbored extreme jealousy for Saverin because Saverin was able to fit in with the so-called “cool” kids at Harvard, while Zuckerberg was something of a social misfit. Likewise, the movie shows these two as having the nastiest fallout one can possibly imagine. In truth, there was conflict between Zuckerberg and Saverin, but it was not as dramatic as the movie depicted. Both of the men got extremely rich because of their involvement with Facebook, with Saverin getting a massive payout once he was pushed from the company. While they certainly did not end on the happy note they started the company with, the two men were not sworn enemies as the movie depicts.
Where the movie does accurately show conflict is in showing the relationship between Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins. The movie shows the Winklevoss twins as being more involved than they actually were, but there was a legitimate conflict between the two. The Winklevoss twins were gifted rowers, and they were politically connected all the way to the top of Harvard. Zuckerberg ended up having to pay a settlement to these two in order to make the situation go away, and it was just as contentious as the movie makes it seem.
The movie plays up the role of Sean Parker in the development of Facebook, and in some respects, it shows the way in which Zuckerberg was taken by the prospect of meeting his hero. This was mostly true, though it was made more dramatic for the big screen. Parker did have a major impact on Facebook, and it is true that he was the guy who advised Zuckerberg to drop “the” from the name of the site. Parker’s contributions were important to the development of the site, and Zuckerberg did have some personal affection for him in the beginning. Still, the power grab executed by Parker in the movie did not exactly happen that way in real life. Zuckerberg maintained more control over his company than the movie lets on, and Parker had less of a role in manipulating the removal of Saverin from the company.
Ultimately the film’s creators made the decision to dramatize some things because conflict makes for a good film. The story of a nerd at Harvard starting a website was interesting, but it needed a bit more spice. The movie’s creators stayed mostly true to the story, but they also made it as interesting as possible by pushing conflict between the individual characters.
Facebook was one of the most important inventions in the history of the world. When Zuckerberg created a site that would allow people around the world to connect, he changed the way people talk, communicate, share their lives, and share their views. The site took off quickly, and it was clear that Zuckerberg had created something that people desperately needed, even though they did not know they needed it. “Social Network” shows the way this played out, though it does take some dramatic liberties to create more intrigue.
