After leaving the cinema, Jaykie and I had somewhat the same opinion: we enjoyed the film – immensely – but did not feel any emotional attachment with any of the characters.
I enjoyed Mark Zuckerberg’s scathing one-liners, but did not feel sorry for him when he lost the trust of his lovely girlfriend (“Having a relationship with you is like having a relationship with a Stairmaster”), and his only friend. He sort of deserved it. I enjoyed Napster founder and now Facebook stockholder Sean Parker’s various assholery (played brilliantly by Justin Timberlake), but did not feel sorry for him when he got busted by the police while doing cocaine. He sort of deserved it. I understand the pain of being double-crossed and having an idea robbed from you by a person you trust, but the Winklevoss twins and Eduardo Saverin ended up settling and going home with millions of dollars (Saverin’s take-home was said to be an “undisclosed” amount, which probably translates to a “fucking big” amount), so I couldn’t say boo-hoo they got 60-plus million instead of a billion dollars and feel sorry for them either. In fact, whenever I recall the Winklevoss twins’ (played by one actor, Reaper‘s Armie Hammer) expression of despair during the trial, I end up laughing. It was an anguish you couldn’t take seriously. It was like watching an episode of Jerry Springer, or watching children fight.
Why does it feel so trivial? Because it was childish dirty business? Because everyone was rich? Because it’s Facebook?
But hot damn, it was all very fascinating. Everything worked: cinematography, music, screenplay, and the actors are spot-on. Watch it.
And read this New Yorker article for additional info.
The technology site Silicon Alley Insider got hold of some of the messages and, this past spring, posted the transcript of a conversation between Zuckerberg and a friend, outlining how he was planning to deal with Harvard Connect:
FRIEND: so have you decided what you are going to do about the websites?
ZUCK: yea i’m going to fuck them
ZUCK: probably in the year
ZUCK: *ear
In another exchange leaked to Silicon Alley Insider, Zuckerberg explained to a friend that his control of Facebook gave him access to any information he wanted on any Harvard student:
ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard
ZUCK: just ask
ZUCK: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns
FRIEND: what!? how’d you manage that one?
ZUCK: people just submitted it
ZUCK: i don’t know why
ZUCK: they “trust me”
ZUCK: dumb fucks
According to two knowledgeable sources, there are more unpublished IMs that are just as embarrassing and damaging to Zuckerberg. But, in an interview, Breyer told me, “Based on everything I saw in 2006, and after having a great deal of time with Mark, my confidence in him as C.E.O. of Facebook was in no way shaken.” Breyer, who sits on Facebook’s board, added, “He is a brilliant individual who, like all of us, has made mistakes.” When I asked Zuckerberg about the IMs that have already been published online, and that I have also obtained and confirmed, he said that he “absolutely” regretted them. “If you’re going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right?” he said. “I think I’ve grown and learned a lot.”
Zuckerberg’s sophomoric former self, he insists, shouldn’t define who he is now. But he knows that it does, and that, because of the upcoming release of “The Social Network,” it will surely continue to do so. The movie is a scathing portrait, and the image of an unsmiling, insecure, and sexed-up young man will be hard to overcome. Zuckerberg said, “I think a lot people will look at that stuff, you know, when I was nineteen, and say, ‘Oh, well, he was like that. . . . He must still be like that, right?’ ”
Eliza Victoria 