This week “The Social Network,” a film loosely based on the creation of Facebook directed by David Fincher was released into theaters. This movie was screen written by Aaron Sorkin and is based off the book “Accidental Billionaires: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” by Ben Mezrich, who was a consultant of Eduardo Saverin one of the co-creators of Facebook.
Facebook was launched in Feb. 2004 as The Facebook and became the most popular social networking site on the Internet, surpassing Myspace.com, in 2008. It is questionable whether or not the release of the film will change the popularity of Facebook and people’s perspective of their own Facebook accounts.
“The Social Network is a great movie. I say thanks to both Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg,” Ryan Alloway, 23, a Michigan State Alumni and current employee of the Discovery Channel as an Emerging Nets Research Analyst, said in a Facebook post.
“The Social Network,” not only showed the history of Facebook, but also the downfalls of friends go into business together when a lot of money is involved. Within the film Mark Zuckerberg, a computer programming student at Harvard invents Facebook, but finds himself in many legal disputes over the financial ownership of Facebook.
Not only are Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss suing Mark for stealing their idea, but also his former best friend Eduardo Saverin, whose financial contributions served as the start of Facebook, is suing Zuckerberg for his personal financial losses he received after Zuckerberg’s lawyers drew up a faulty contract for Saverin.
Alloway had a positive outlook on the movie and was grateful for Facebook’s creation, but not without realizing its dark side.
“The movie asks some very important questions and is the type of film that leaves you asking if the Internet can really be blamed for tearing people apart, or do we just have ourselves to blame?” Alloway said.
Some people were not happy about the history of the creators, but it did not affect them enough to terminate their accounts.
“ ‘The Social Network’ made me feel uncomfortable about the origins of Facebook, but not uncomfortable enough to stop using it,” 23-year-old Katie Wilson, a senior at EMU, said.
“It made me rethink having a Facebook account for about five minutes, but then I realized I could not live without it, I rely on it for too many things,” 22-year-old Stacey Oberman, also a senior, said.
“I wasn’t going to join any social networks, but everyone had one in high school. Then, when I got to college a friend told me I had to switch to college Facebook,” Oberman said. “I use it to communicate with my employers, classmates on projects and to keep up with friends because I lead such a busy life.”
Oberman is not alone in her reasons and uses of Facebook, many other students have expressed the same opinion.
“I joined in 2005, because everyone else was doing it. I spend maybe a total of an hour a day on Facebook, but not all in one sitting, I spread it out,” Amanda Krimmer, a senior at EMU, said. “I use Facebook to keep up with friends and plan get-togethers.”
“My friend in college signed me up when I was in high school. I spend about two hours a day on Facebook,” Meagan Dreher, a 21-year-old at EMU, said. “I keep up with friends and see if I have messages.”
But there are people who had disliked Facebook long before the release of the movie. Daniel Dugan, a 21-year-old student at Eastern Michigan University, refuses to create a Facebook account.
“Facebook gives away information to everyone and I would rather only share that information to those that are close to me,” Dugan said.
Jeff Twardzik, an 18-year-old freshman at EMU has an account, but shares Dugan’s sentiments about Facebook.
“There’s no privacy, everything you post everyone knows, even stuff you don’t want people to know and people can take things out of a certain context,” Twardzik said.
Since the release of “The Social Network” was only a week ago, it is hard to tell whether or not it will have a dramatic effect on Facebook’s popularity. However, so far it seems that despite mixed feelings about the movie those on Facebook are there to stay and people will continue to join as long as their friends do.
