Facebook – Reel Review by Lauryn

The movie The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin attempts to portray the story of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. Before becoming the face of data privacy, Mark Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard University who developed one of the greatest inventions of all time: Facebook.

As always, I’d first like to start off my admiring the case. Let’s be honest, the casting director deserves a round of applause. I re-watched this movie for the second time and I forgot how many hotties they casted: Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, and let’s not forget Justin Timberlake.

This has nothing to do with the cinematic content or value of the film. But, I have a confession. I kind of have a weird ~~obsession~~ crush on Jessie Eisenberg…. I know, I know. But he’s hot. Disagree? I don’t care. HE PLAYS A HOT NERD PEOPLE. For a girl who is on her way to getting her third degree, his character is the best thing since sliced bread. Wait, I’m not eating carbs this week… either way, more for me 😛

ugh, I had to! Maybe I should stop having so many celebrity crushes. Nah, it’s too fun.

ANYWAY

Let’s talk about the actual movie for a hot sec. A couple of observations:

Don’t get me wrong, ultimately I loved the dialogue. However, I felt like I had to watch the opening dialogue between Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) like 30 times just to understand what they were saying. It was one of the moments where I didn’t know if they were speaking English or trying to sound intellectual. Sorkin’s writing embodies a certain level of sophistication. But it is hard to believe that anyone talks like this in real life. Correction, no one talks like this in real life. Overall, the dialogue is corky, unconventional, and surprisingly makes you laugh at times where you feel like you shouldn’t. In other words, it grows on you.

Although Mark Zuckerberg may be the reason your mom posts embarrassing photos of you online, The Social Network describes a deeper inverse relationship that we experience in our lives.

One of my favorite writers is Mark Manson. In his article Why the Best Things in Life Are All Backwards he says,

“Most activities in life do not operate along the linear effort/reward curve because most activities in life are not basic nor mindless. Most activities are complex, mentally and/or emotionally taxing, and require adaptation.
Friendships operate on a diminishing returns curve. Having one friend is vital. Having two is clearly better than one. But having 10 instead of 9 changes little in your life. And having 21 instead of 20 just makes remembering people’s names that much more difficult.”
– Mark Manson

This movie may seem like “yesterday’s news” but there is more than meets the eye. In the film Eduardo Saverin ( Andrew Garfield) gives Zuckerberg money to fund the initial operations of Facebook. Even though Saverin invested the first $1,000 he becomes father removed from Facebook’s development. He ultimately sues the company and settles for an undisclosed amount shortly after.

I don’t think this movie was created to see whether Mark Zuckerberg acted in accordance with his character in the movie. That is another issue. He created one of the greatest inventions of all time. If anyone were to be the CEO of one of the greatest inventions of all-time, you’re going to need more than intelligence. A person of that caliber has an atypical combination of courage, wit and a strong sense of what they want to be in this world.

Despite the movie cutting back and forth between two separate lawsuits, the color palette in this film was warm and inviting. The movie often used grey undertones tones with a hint of the “Facebook” blue. The city of Boston also functions as a perfect backdrop for this corky coming-of-age story.

Overall, this movie was far beyond its time. When Zuckerberg created a social network, his invention developed a platform to build digital connections. But as we strive to “connect” through social media, our relationships become less intimate overtime.

Is this the price we pay for innovation? Exchanging genuine friendships for popularity?

. . . and just to feed your curiosity . . .

The Social Media Black Market

The law has the vitality of an organism. Although it may seem like the law is developed through various social movements and stuffy political leaders, laws originate from purpose. Our social purpose. Without us spreading ideas we value most, there would be no change. Social change has many components. It involves me and you. Together, we work together to challenge the social and political dimensions– creating a direct impact on society. We may not feel it every day, but we have the power to make it happen. Today, you and I will address the issue of privacy and our social media identity. Let’s make change together.

We can all use more likes on our pictures, views on our Instagram story or just more attention in general. But has it come to a point where we pay for it? Apparently so.

Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you…followers. As we will see, popularity and privacy have its price.

I know you saw the word privacy and probably thought of Facebook or Cambridge Analytica.

Yes, your preliminary ideas of privacy may be correct. Unfortunately, there are more social media bullies out there. A lot more.

Who can blame them? In a world where we value Likes more than a spoken compliment, why wouldn’t someone develop a company to exploit our horrible priorities.

Sounds like great business idea….

Imagine the moderate-to-frequent social media user. Although he or she may like the occasional picture of their favorite actor or travel page, they use social media for its fundamental purpose. To connect. Liking pictures of their best friend, partner, crush or even their ex. Hey, I’m not trying to get all up in your business about what you do on social media but Devumi does.

Devumi, a social media marketing company, advertise their unique services: selling followers, likes, and views to celebrities, Instagram influencers, your co-workers, best friend, grandmother, basically anyone that wants to look like they have friends online.

It’s social media fraud people. The worst part, according to The NY Times, Devumi often creates a duplicate profile of real users. This includes but is not limited to using the same name, hometown and other personal details of a REAL person. These automated accounts known as “Bots,” promote just about anything. From the new cafe in town, to pornographic sites, there are no limits.

YOU MAY HAVE A DUPLICATE ACCOUNT AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW IT.

Sorry, don’t mean to scare you. But hey that’s life.

To make matters scarier, Twitter does not require its accounts to be operated by a real person. Therefore, companies like Devumi can set up these automated accounts (called “Bots”) with little to no effort and make millions.

So why did I write this article. To scare you of course. But in all seriousness, there are a bigger issue here. This appears to be mass identity theft. But, regulation of social media lies in the grey area when it comes to the law. There have been many developments in protecting the collection and sharing of our personal information through The Global Data Protection Regulation enacted in May of 2018. But continued social media fraud can be dangerous. In today’s age, it is inevitable that our social media posts, followings and pictures are a reflection of our values often evaluated by our friends, co-workers and employers.

So what’s the solution? Let’s take a sociological perspective on the current issue: Athletes, TED Speakers, actors, executives, businesses, and Instagram models now have a common denominator. They are apart of Devumi’s enormous customer base of 200,000 people.

To get to the root of the issue, we have to be real with each other. What are we accomplishing with all these followers? Have we become so obsessed that we are willing to pay someone to develop a robot to like our pictures just so we can brag to Tina at Starbucks?!

Newsflash Tina doesn’t care.

Don’t get me wrong, we can develop a space where we all care about each other’s well-being. For example, I really love fashion, healthy eating and travel (I’m basic). So I choose to follow accounts that post these things as well.

There is nothing wrong with creating a social media platform to show the world who you are and what you love. In fact, I applaud you for your self expression. But, it is critical to examine when our motives reach a bifurcation point. When do our inspiration transform from passion into fame, popularity or constant approval from others? Exploitation of our misplaced values is where companies like Devumi thrive.

What can we do today?

Changes in the law are an indicator of the complexities of social change. For now, we should use the law as a catalyst, to propagate social change where there are blatant inequalities in our privacy and protection of our identities. For now, let’s be curious about our personal and digital privacy. It’s definately worth it.

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