David Fincher 's The Social Network

The movie “Social Network” is about the ideas and the development behind the creation of the very popular social networking site “Facebook”. Mark Zuckerberg is the main character in the movie and also the actual creator of Facebook.

In Sherman Alexie’s poem “The Facebook Sonnet” Alexie brings up a controversy, over all social media because it absorbs society into the depths of dark unknowns and prevents physical face to face communication. Even though Facebook allows people to stay up to date with friends, whether they be new or deep-rooted, the platform tears its users away from substantial social interaction with others. People can connect to the world by the click of the mouse and know what is going on at any given time. Social media requires ones everlasting attention, and the addiction is almost comparable to that of a cigarette, one cannot give it up and is always thinking about when one can check it again. People become so caught up in trying to perceive what everyone else is doing, they forget that they have a reality to live and fail to maintain real relationships. “The Facebook Sonnet” belittles the social media platform by emphasizing how obsessed society is with making themselves look perfect for the screen. One is either gripping to their past or obsessing over the present.

In the article Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy published in the issue of March 2012, Rolling Stones Magazine; the author Janet Reitman speaks with an Dartmouth student, revealing the inside perspective of greek life fraternity.

A major turning point in the authors’ life was when he attended Gallaudet University. At Gallaudet, he was surrounded by deaf peers and signing professors. To him, this was unbelievable. He was no longer behind from interpreters relaying information after it had already been said. Mark expresses this emotional state by saying he is no longer “living in a fishbowl anymore” (pg. 111). At one point earlier in the book, Mark compares himself to someone born underwater having to live in a glass bubble; someone who is unfortunately an outcast from the rest. But with the help of special scuba diving gear, you had the ability to interact and swim with the other fish. Although the scuba gear was accommodating in many ways, it was “heavy and uncomfortable, and as much as it helped you interact with the fish, you never were able to swim like them” (Pg. 44). In order to find out who he

Mark’s past made it a possible risk that he could potential go down the path for using illicit substances. For starters his mother had a history of depression, which is not to say that this inherited gene predisposes him to develop the illness but it does increase his chances. Depression has been linked to an increase risk for substance abuse. Secondly, Mark’s mother lost her job when he was sixteen, leading to economical hardship for the family. Lower socioeconomic status is often an open door for increase risk for engaging in substance abuse. Then as a young adult he frequently drank

Mark explained that both of them were friends who were inseparable. He stated, “ I lost both my friend and my privileges to experience the world.” The two teens were students at Waverly High School. Carl Stringfield, who is the principle of Waverly High School stated, “ These gentlemen were very outstanding both educational and athletic.”

Talbot beings her essay with a relatable spokesperson by the name of Alex, who is a graduate from Harvard and establishing an informal and personal tone to her article. By creating a personal tone to begin her article she draws the reader’s attention by giving them someone to relate to was well as what Alex is going through. She gives the readers experiences

Mark was a freshman at the University of Colorado, thousands of miles away from his parents who lived in Connecticut. He was the younger sibling to his brother who was also attending college. He had never had any vast problem with the law except for a speeding ticket when he was in high school. Overall, Mark was a well-behaved college student. His parents, Diane and Chris, were a joyous couple throughout their marriage. Chris worked for a computer software company which required him to spend most of his time traveling. Due to this, Diane was a little more attached to her kids then he was. She was one of the first people to notice Mark slowly changing and becoming ill.

Chris Sheller is a successful sophomore in High School. He is about to graduate into the 11th grade as the soccer team captain and with 3 honor rolls. His family isn’t the wealthiest, so he has learned how to be humble and support himself and others. He has great social intelligence and is driven to meet his goals. Chris will be graduating this year with his best friend, Rocky. Differing from Chris, Rocky is more laid back. He is a successful C-D student with more interest in women than his schooling. He is not favored by his teachers, nor by his bosses. Although he does have a desire to work in the medical field along with Chris. Years later, Chris and Rocky are confronted with an opportunity that could change their lives. An invitation to Harvard University. They both choose to embark to the college to see what is in store. Because a teenager’s choices through life can affect their reputation as shown in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, teenagers often miss the fact that their reputation and the image that they uphold is incredibly important.

Help out by vanishing.” (43). Karin’s presence caused him the most trouble as Mark’s mind conceived the idea that she was actually a double, an actor of sorts. This distrust in his own feelings as well as his ‘new’ world, parallels the distrust and alien nature of Mark’s younger relationship to his parents. After being left in such a vulnerable state, his mind reaches for what few emotional ties he had left, even if that meant diving into unsettling memories and unsolved childhood trauma.

According to the Social Dominance Theory (SDT), student bodies within colleges and universities are structured through hierarchical groups based on popularity. Ideally the hierarchical groups would be based on level of academic achievement, but that is usually not the case. One type of a dominant group at most HBCUs is the fraternities. For one of the pledges in Burning Sands his reasons for joining the fraternity is to become "The Man" and receive the attention of female students on campus. To most students, this pledge was socially awkward; as a matter of fact, in most social settings he appears uncomfortable and incompetent. For pledges like this character, the selling point on joining the fraternity is an expected increase in popularity

Amory interiorizes the conformity that Moretti describes on survival upon matriculation to Princeton. His life becomes a fraud as his daily interactions grow predicated upon what Moretti refers to as the curbing of “intrinsically boundless dynamism” (6). In essence, Amory restrains his role as a dynamic character in his pursuit of mastery of social structure and popularity. This obsession is alluded to and eventually cemented in his first year at Princeton. Walking into Princeton, he concedes his fascination as he “watched each rank of linked arms” pass by with “voices blent” (45). His admiration of the football team’s pack mentality and high position on campus provides insight into his willingness to compromise his character as well as into his overconcentration with trivialities

Herbst 2 Greek Life serves to provide refuge to students, which often leads to a condensed form of mob psychology in which students turn to other students for support. The transition from high school to college can be a difficult one, as often students leave their hometowns, are away from their families for the first time, and have to learn to manage more rigorous and extensive coursework. True to human nature, students seek social refuge among other students, and often turn to Greek Life in the form of Sororities and Fraternities as a result. According to Psychology Today’s Dr. Alan Reifman, “extraversion, risk-taking, excitement-seeking, and so forth… sets them apart from [students who do not partake in Greek Life],” (Reifman). Some students seek the structure provided by Greek Life, and find that occupation can lead to more productivity across all fronts, while others simply seek a support system that transcends independence.

In her blog “ The Fakebook Generation,” later to be published in the New York Times on October 6, 2007, Alice Mathias enters the topic of the most used social networking service worldwide, Facebook. Mathias debates on Facebook’s claim of being a forum for “genuine personal and professional connections” (438) and tries to influence her readers to ask themselves if the website really promotes human relationships. Alice Mathias, a 2007 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire has wrote several more columns before, in which one of them was even awarded the Waterhouse Research Award.

At the end of David Fincher’s film, The Social Network, Sean Parker sums up the progress of today’s society “we lived on farms, then we lived on cities, and now we are going to live on the internet”. Narrated through parallel story lines; the process of creating Facebook and the resulting lawsuits between Zuckerberg and Saverin and the Winklevoss Twins and Diva Nirendera. The film re-tells the story of the birth of Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg and his associates, Eduardo Saverin and Sean Parker. The idea of human interest is explored throughout, in the lasting consequences that jealousy, greed and betrayal has on relationships. Through this Fincher provides a critique of how today’s society connects. The realism of the film, created thorough costuming, dialogue and lighting accentuates the need for real relationships, messy and vulnerable though they are, compared to disconnected virtual ones which lack warmth and authenticity. Fincher provokes the audience to question their own lives and asks if a society that lives on the internet is a good direction to head.