The Social Network

Being noted as the brilliant movie that defines the decade The Social Network is a new drama film that takes you on the journey about the founding of the internet social networking website Facebook.  Facebook is a worldwide phenomenon that is a quick and easy way to have instant communication, photos, videos and status updates with friends, peers, colleagues and family members.  The Social Network shows you how this popular social network came into action and the different highs and lows of friendship and money. 

After getting dumped by his girlfriend Mark Zuckerberg , a student at Harvard University comes up with an idea to make a website rating the attractiveness of female Harvard undergrads.  After hacking into the schools database of various dorms and using different algorithms he creates a page called FaceMash which is an instant hit with over 22,000 views in just 24 hours.   Zuckenberg is then approached with an idea to have a site for all of Harvard where you would be able to see a profile of information on other students.  To Zuckenberg, this idea is just a draft for his huge master plan. 

After careful research and analysis Zuckenberg realizes that as students we have a constant urge to feel connected and up-to-date with our friends.  Because he was able to see the instant success of FaceMash he used more complex algorithms to make it so you could see pictures, status updates, videos, background information and the ability to send a public message on a friend’s wall. 

The website exploded and currently has over 500 million users from all around the world. 

Facebook has met with some controversy along the way.  It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Pakistan, Syria, The People’s Republic of China, Vietnam and North Korea.  There were also problems with the website with claims that Zuckerberg stole the idea from Harvard Crew rowers who had approached him with a similar idea a few weeks before Facebook launched. 

Although Zuckerberg did not realize it at the time he was using research in an unobtrusive way.  He took the concept of FaceMash and saw what a huge success it was and used its success as a way to drive another experiment.  He saw that people loved being able to see pictures and feeling connected with friends.  Each week Facebook would expand because of his unobtrusive research.  Without him asking other students he was able to amplify by adding different applications and fields.  Zuckerberg was not directly asking for advice and was not intruding on Facebook followers asking what they liked or did not like, he was able observe and expand his network by observations and indirect measures.  

With a 50 million dollar budget The Social Network has gross over 24 million dollars in just one week of its release.  Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of critics have given the film a positive review with an average score of 9.1 out of 10.  Back in January a study was done by Compete.com showing that Facebook was the number two most popular site in the United States under Yahoo.com