The Social Network: Living in the Digital Age (Part Four)

In my last semester of college, I completed a writing portfolio entitled "Exploring Modern American Culture through Contemporary Cinema." It contained four essays dissecting four recent films. For the last essay, I studied David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) and wrote about its portrayal of the burgeoning culture of the Digital Age. The fourth and final part of that essay is below. Previous posts: The Dark Knight - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; (500) Days of Summer - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; Lincoln - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; The Social Network - Part One, Part Two, Part Three. Thanks for reading! 

 

The Social Network: Living in the Digital Age

The Long-lasting Effects of Quick Communication

A final Digital Age problem examined by The Social Network is the permanence of information shared on the Internet. This danger of digital communication is illustrated in a scene where Mark tries to reconcile with Erica. He approaches her when she is out with friends, hoping to have a word with her. She spurns him. Still angry about the insulting blog post he wrote about her, Erica reminds Mark that “the Internet’s not written in pencil… it’s written in ink” (Fincher). Her rebuff is a valid one in the age of blogging and other personal websites. People constantly share their thoughts and feelings on a variety of platforms. Impulsivity on the Internet can have long-lasting consequences, both personal and legal. The Social Network shows the first with the aforementioned scene. Mark’s thoughtless internet post one drunken night has an irreparable negative effect on one of the few relationships he is deeply attached to.

The latter consequence (legal problems) is demonstrated by the two court cases Mark is involved in. The Winklevoss case uses old emails and texts as evidence against Zuckerberg. He used digital communication because he wanted to avoid actually facing the brothers, but because it was permanent, he could not erase it or deny it. The message the film sends here is that with the advent of the Internet, it is nearly impossible to escape one’s past. The court case with Eduardo conveys this message on a metaphorical level, particularly in a scene where Mark’s lawyer brings up old accusations leveled against Saverin. In college, Eduardo was accused of animal cruelty; though the issue was resolved years before the lawsuit, it is still haunting him. This subplot is symbolic of life in the Digital Age. When the incident occurred, Mark told Eduardo to “forget about it,” but he cannot (Fincher). It follows him around, just like Mark’s post about Erica. For real-life social networkers, this means being wary of what they do or say online, whether that means not posting pictures from wild parties on Facebook or refraining from writing angry tirades on Tumblr. Privacy settings on these sites can help avoid harsh repercussions, but they are often difficult to use properly. For instance, a Columbia University study found a “shortcoming of the privacy settings” on Facebook: all the participants were unintentionally “sharing something they wished to hide, or was hiding something they wished to share” (Bellovin, Johnson, and Madejski 14). It often seems anything and everything can be found online nowadays, which means careful communication is key.

Conclusion

The digitalization of society, particularly communication techniques, has many pros and cons. The negative aspects of digital communication are subtle but prevalent. On social networks, people are often seen as numbers, friends, and likes rather than human beings. The intrinsic social value of interpersonal interactions is undermined when popularity is put above genuine connection. And when information-sharing sites are used to vent anger or sadness, or to display possibly immature behavior, the impact on the sharer’s life can be greater than he or she originally anticipated. The Social Network’s somber tale shows all of these potential dangers. The characters suffer because they underestimate just how much the world has changed. They neither show an understanding of how it has shaped their values, nor do they fully realize how much the technology can affect their lives, in the present and the future. With messages cautioning against the mores and habits produced by technological socialization, The Social Network is a keen parable for the Digital Age.

Sources

Bellovin, Steven M., Maritza Johnson, and Michelle Madejski. Department of Computer Science, Columbia University. The Failure of Online Social Network Privacy Settings. 2011. Web. 17 Nov 2013.

Fincher, David, dir. The Social Network. Writ. Aaron Sorkin, Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. Columbia Pictures, 2010. Film. 2 Nov 2013.

The Social Network: Living in the Digital Age (Part Three)

In my last semester of college, I completed a writing portfolio entitled "Exploring Modern American Culture through Contemporary Cinema." It contained four essays dissecting four recent films. For the last essay, I studied David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) and wrote about its portrayal of the burgeoning culture of the Digital Age. The third part of that essay is below. I will post a new portfolio excerpt every day. Previous posts: The Dark Knight - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; (500) Days of Summer - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; Lincoln - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; The Social Network - Part One, Part Two.

The Social Network: Living in the Digital Age

Anti-Social Networking

The objectification of one’s peers can lead to another problem, which The Social Network also addresses: valuing popularity over relationships. The most obvious example of this is the disintegration of Mark’s friendship with Eduardo. As the film’s tagline states, “You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” (The Social Network). For Mark, one of those enemies is his former best friend. The pair starts out working together to make Facebook a success, and they end up sitting across a table from each other, their lawyers by their sides, now courtroom rivals. Why does this relational failure occur? Mark, fearful of potential fiascos Eduardo might cause, and perhaps jealous of his pal’s real-life social acceptance, abandons him to protect Facebook, the source of his growing statistical popularity. He loses “his only friend,” the one meaningful relationship in his life (Fincher).

It seems Mark perceives the notions of popularity and friendship in black-and-white terms. This view of the character is supported by his proxy, Eisenberg, who says Mark sees interpersonal interactions “almost in this checklist way” (Phillips). Companionship and connection to others are prized goals for him, but his beliefs about them are distorted. He sees status as equal to fulfillment. This is apparent in his view of having a girlfriend. Mark spends the whole movie trying to win Erica back, thinking if he has enough fame and fortune, if Facebook becomes big enough, she will want to date him again. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of their relationship. He does not comprehend why she broke up with him in the first place. She did not like his abrasive, cold personality; it had nothing to do with his popularity, which could never win her heart. Mark’s misconceptions about personal relationships are also evident when examining his impression of Eduardo and his girlfriend, Christy (Brenda Song). Despite the fact that Christy is obsessive, jealous, erratic, and downright dangerous, making Eduardo miserable, Mark says to him “it’s nice you have a girlfriend” (Fincher). He thinks simply having a romantic relationship is enough to make someone happy, regardless of how unhealthy it might be. This is representative of his entire view of human interactions. For Mark, the denotation of a position has more significance than its connotation in one’s life.

In the context of The Social Network as an assessment of the Digital Generation, Mark provides a valuable lens through which to see the story. He holds popularity above friendship. This is something encouraged by social networks, which are common features in everyday American life, particularly for younger generations. The vast majority of young adults in the United States use Facebook: 83 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds, as opposed to 67 percent across all age brackets (Smith). On this site and others, like Twitter and Tumblr, numbers are everything. Though these top social networks are useful tools for keeping in contact with loved ones, they also give people the opportunity to calculate their popularity by letting them see the number of friends (Facebook) or followers (Twitter and Tumblr) they have. Facebook and Twitter also allow for comparisons by making each person’s statistics available for others to see. Tumblr does not have this feature, but it does let users see how much activity their microblog is accruing. Studies have shown such sociometrics have an effect on how users perceive others, with profiler users with few friends having less perceived social attractiveness (Langwell et. al 542). The emphasis on popularity and image on social networks is taken to extremes with the website Klout. Through analysis of one’s online presence and interactions, it quantifies Internet influence with a Klout score, which can be compared to others around the globe. This tendency to evaluate a person based on his or her Web popularity, like Mark’s to evaluate people based on their relational status, shows a lack of value for one’s more human personal worth. With Mark’s detached mindset, The Social Network suggests the Digital Age may be producing a society of superficial interactions and the devaluation of peers.

Sources

Fincher, David, dir. The Social Network. Writ. Aaron Sorkin, Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. Columbia Pictures, 2010. Film. 2 Nov 2013.

Klout. Klout Inc., 2008. Web. 17 Nov 2013.

Langwell, Lindsey, Brandon Van Der Heide, Stephanie Tom Tong, and Joseph B. Walther. "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Relationship Between Number of Friends and Interpersonal Impressions on Facebook." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13.3 (2008): 531-49. Print.

Phillips, Michael. "David Fincher's anti-social approach to the filming of 'Social Network'." Chicago Tribune 24 Sep 2010, n. pag. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. .

Smith, Cooper. "A Primer on Facebook Demographics." Business Insider. Business Insider Inc., 29 Oct 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013.

"The Social Network (2010)." IMDb. Amazon.com, 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013.

The Social Network: Living in the Digital Age (Part Two)

In my last semester of college, I completed a writing portfolio entitled "Exploring Modern American Culture through Contemporary Cinema." It contained four essays dissecting four recent films. For the last essay, I studied David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) and wrote about its portrayal of the burgeoning culture of the Digital Age. The second part of that essay is below. I will post a new portfolio excerpt every day. Previous posts: The Dark Knight - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; (500) Days of Summer - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; Lincoln - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; The Social Network - Part One.

 

The Social Network: Living in the Digital Age

The Objectification of the Human Race

Deeply embedded in The Social Network is its commentary on digitalized life. It can be felt in all aspects of the film, right down to its pace. The movie crams 162 pages of script into two hours of cinema, moving at an appropriately lightning-fast pace, just like the technology that drives the story (Phillips). The criticism starts right away with a telling opening sequence. After his girlfriend, Erica (Rooney Mara) breaks up with him at a local bar, Mark rushes back to his dorm room, angry and ready to rant. He has a few drinks, and instead of complaining to his roommates, he decides to complain to the world. Mark pulls up his blog and writes a bitter diatribe against the girl who just dumped him. He then decides he needs to get his mind off of her. His solution? Create Facesmash, a site where students can compare girls based on their looks. At first, he considers comparing the girls to farm animals (an idea he blogs about), but ultimately decides against it. For this site, Mark uses photos of Harvard students to make the whole thing all the more entertaining for his peers.

Facemash is representative of widespread objectification that has occurred due to the impersonal nature of the Internet. This is not to say objectification was not a problem prior to the Digital Age. Mass media throughout the 20th century have made this commonplace in U.S. culture, from Hollywood’s manufacture of celebrities to stereotyping in advertisements. The Internet has added a new aspect to this phenomenon. Now people can do to their peers something that was once reserved for public figures: obsess over them, looking up their interests, history, and even their images. For example, on Facebook a person can look up any of his or her “friends” and see what others have said to them, what they are up to, and what they look like with status updates, wall posts, and photo albums. This allows one to accumulate superficial perceptions of his or her family members, close friends, and acquaintances, just as one could generate casual impressions about celebrities by reading tabloids or watching entertainment news. On the other end of the spectrum, people can try to generate their own celebrity. By carefully choosing what to share or not to share on a social network or other similar site, one can create a persona, an idea of him- or herself to put in others’ minds. The Internet did not cause the problem of objectification, but it has broadened it.

Sources

Fincher, David, dir. The Social Network. Writ. Aaron Sorkin, Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. Columbia Pictures, 2010. Film. 2 Nov 2013.

Phillips, Michael. "David Fincher's anti-social approach to the filming of 'Social Network'." Chicago Tribune 24 Sep 2010, n. pag. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.