The movie The Social Network provided an interesting look into the founding of Facebook, a revolutionary website that changed the way we interact with each other. Apart from being an interesting exposé, it cast Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a negative light.
Scene from The Social Network
Facebook has redefined societal interactions, and has made its mark on global society. The movie The Social Network has defined Zuckerberg as an aloof individual. Although the film certainly makes a point to show that Zuckerberg is an incredibly intelligent individual, it also portrayed him as a narcissistic individual.
Granted, I have absolutely no way of knowing without a shadow of doubt that Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal is an accurate representation of the internet mogul or not, the overall depiction makes Zuckerberg look bad. Granted the character comes across as an intelligent individual, but that fact is overshadowed by his self-absorption.
Picture of co-founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg's reaction to the movie was mixed. There's an interesting analysis of his reaction on The PR Post written by Tiffany Gallicano. On her blog, Gallicano mentions that Zuckerberg played the movie off as fun, and characterized it as fiction. He gave the appearance that the movie was of no concern to him whatsoever.
Zuckerberg did however stumble when he announced a donation of $100 million dollars to the Newark school system on Oprah the day the movie was released. Gallicano refers to the tactic as a little league strategy "when a company looks bad and decides to sponsor the little league team in hopes that this gesture will make up for things." This effort seems disingenuous, and very calculated.
Despite doing some damage to Zuckerberg's image, overall I don't think The Social Network will have a negative impact on Facebook. I doubt that any of the +500 million users on Facebook deleted their profiles in disgust over Zuckerberg's conduct. Furthermore, although the donation to the Newark school system seemed disingenuous, most people will focus on the number rather than the reason behind the donation. In the end, the movie The Social Network will have little to no impact on the popularity of the website.
Here's a shameless plug for The Social Network. Enjoy the trailer.
I agree, I don't think the movie is going to affect Facebook usage at all. Their following is so huge already and people aren't going to lose contact with their friends over that.
ReplyDeleteA recent article by Adam Campbell agrees with you David. Campbell says, "Even if 500 million people see this movie, I doubt that it will hurt its success."
ReplyDeleteI agree with all three of you, too! Facebook is simply far too entrenched in our social-media-hungry-minds for us to leave it anytime soon.
ReplyDelete