Mark Zuckerberg- MISS understood

Over 500 million people in the world are on Facebook. Half of those people log on to Facebook every single day. The movie “The Social Network” tells the story of the creation of Facebook and the twisted and callous creator Mark Zuckerberg whom detached himself from his friends only to create a social media site that aims to connect the world to one another. A Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg, Zadie Smith gives her opinion of the movie in her article “Generation Why” and specifically both at the way Mark is portrayed in the movie, as opposed to his personality, in addition to what the movie says about “Generation Why.” While I it could be said that Smith is anti- Facebook because it traps the Self and is based only off of what Mark Zuckerberg thinks we should want to say about our SELVES, I instead want to develop her idea that the movie should not be seen as a critique of Mark Zuckerberg but instead an evaluation of why our generation uses the social network, Facebook.

I agree with Zadie’s point that Aaron Sorkin, manipulates the motivations for Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook. I myself while watching the film sided with Mark Zuckerberg. From the beginning, while Mark is shown to not understand social relationships, but an amazing gift in programming and creating addicting websites. Sorkin instead of highlighting Zuckerberg’s strengths paints him to be a backstabbing, money-grabbing, womanizer. Zadie asserts that Zuckerberg, like everyone else in the world, just wants to be liked; because Sorkin is of a different generation he can not understand the motivations for creating or using such a site as Facebook. I will go as far as to say that Zuckerberg is almost a scapegoat for “generation 2.0.” Aaron Sorkin represents generation 1.0 that is grappling with new media and just “doesn’t get” Facebook or what it means to be an entrepreneur, and so completely misinterprets its founder.

The best thing to take away from the movie, is for generation 2.0 to reflect on what makes Facebook so addicting and how has it completely changed the way we see ourselves, our relationships, and the people around us. Zuckerberg is just one person that was affected by the Facebook. Facebook affects 500 million people as part of our everyday life; and yes hours and hours are passed looking at profiles and editing our own profiles instead of creating real friendships and instead of actually self-improving. In conclusion, I agree with Zadie in that Mark is a martyr for this generation, and is misconstrued by the old world media that “just doesn’t get it”. We can still be on Facebook and understand that it is not a true reflection of ourselves. But when we are putting things on the internet, no matter if it is through Facebook or not, we are creating an idealized version of ourselves. Facebook is not an expression of self awareness or self reflection, but the way we want to come off to others. This is not a problem inherent to Facebook, but an issue that has always existed, when we are trying so hard to show our best selves to others.