Last Friday,  I finally went to see the Social Network, which came out sometime last week. One of the reasons why I found this movie to be so compelling is because it is about the creation of a program that has become, for the most part, part of our everyday lives.

The movie I think focused on a couple of things, one that in order to gain success, sacrifices have to be made. Mark Zuckerberg lost his best friend because of Facebook and the company it became. However, I think the main point of the the movie was that, an idea created at the right time, can truly revolutionize and change the world. I feel like this point is emphasized again and again throughout the movie, especially through Justin Timberlake’s character. Even though from the normal standpoint Napster was a complete failure, he felt that he succeeded because he forever “changed the music industry.” (As a side note, I still can’t figure out how he was living such a lavish life when he was bankrupt)

This is also evident within the Winklevi twins, because they had sued Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea. They felt that they had the right to own it since they came up with it, even though Mark justified himself by saying his concept was different in form and within the code. He made it blatantly clear that he never used any of their code, because of that Mark felt he wasn’t stealing. At the end of the movie I was still struck by how much can be changed because of a random string of events, I kept asking the What if? question and playing out random scenarios. What if he didn’t get dumped by his girlfriend? What if he got into the club? What if he never created Facemash? and so on… it is weird how small choices and actions can build up and create a new Social Network.

So I was supposed to publish this on Sunday but for some reason I never hit the publish button…. oh well here it is now!