In February 2004 the Internet was irreparably changed, and depending on which side of the fence you sit, it was either a good thing or the ruin of basic human interaction. I fall squarely in the latter group, as I feel Facebook has skewed the basic principles of what defines a friend and how we communicate. It is a phenomenon which has taken the most ardent critic by surprise, me included. Although it would be foolish to ignore the 500 million odd users that would instantly vaporise should anything happen to their lives profiles.
So like all things popular and fashionable, a movie just had to be made about Facebook. My initial reaction was one of trepidation, as the idea of watching some varsity student plugging away at his code holed up in a dingy dorm room isn’t appealing. Guns, explosions, and gratuitous nudity are always surefire winners. The Social Network, by the looks of the trailer, will actually be a good watch despite it’s lack of mindless douchebaggery.
The Social Network is a movie which follows the birth of Facebook and the trials and tribulations that moulded it to what it presently is. The protagonist Mark Zuckerberg is played by Jesse Eisenberg, who has lent his talents to off-beat movies such as Adventureland, Zombieland, and The Village. Justin Timberlake also appears in the movie as Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, which I must admit I am curious that he was cast in such a role. He is not exactly the first typecast that comes to mind in context of all things webbified. As long as he doesn’t sing or dance, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Some interesting and some not-so-interesting facts about Facebook after the jump.
- People spend over 700 billion minutes a month on Facebook.
- Of the 500 million users, 150 million access it via their mobile device.
- Mobile Facebook users are twice as active as their desktop counterparts.
- 50% of Facebookers are logged onto their accounts in any given day.
- The average user has 130 friends.
- 100% of Facebook users waste 2 gazillion man hours a year (Ok, I made that one up).
On a side note, Mark Zuckerberg was involved in some dubious shenanigans, which does make me question Facebook’s privacy policies. Wikipedia gives the low-down.
Whether one likes it or not, Facebook has changed the way people interact digitally, and probably for generations to come. Whatever happened to plain old email correspondence?
The Social Network releases in South African cinemas on November 5th.
[reference: Facebook facts]
7 replies on “Socially Networked”
Being an anti social networking person I appreciate your views on the subject. I mean, the only time I “tagged” a friend was when I was a tiny tot back in school playing “on-on”… Nevertheless, I digress. Nice article.
Indeed, thanks for the great article easy.500 million users apparently equates to one out of every fourteen people in the world. Holy :poop: !
I usually check Facebook bi-annually, it’s more of a cleanup than anything else, but I know loads of people who happily contribute to those frightening statistics. I’m quite interested to see the movie, I assume his indiscretions will be part of it, and it won’t be a bland homage to a man who is worth billions? I should probably read a review.
def something to watch out for like the article i mean 500million friend thats heavy
yeah that’s little under twice the population of america! and it’s only going to grow exponentially.
not bad for something that is only six years old
I had an intense, passionate, and as these things usually are, brief love affair with fb. I became particularly embroiled with the all consuming evil that is farmville. We are no longer on speaking terms although we may bump into one another at inapropriate times and now (and possibly forever) my profile sits cold and neglected (or at the very least ignored).
I know many people that still use it as their main communication tool for social and even business-related interactions. Damn I wish I had thought of fb.
Great article – thanks easy :devil:
yeah that’s one of my gripes about fb.
i’ve missed several parties and what-not because i didn’t check my fb profile. so clearly traditional correspondence is not good enough anymore, especially since you can’t tag those oh-so-damned embarrassing photo’s in a text msg or email.
at least my gran still writes to me… with pen on paper nogal!
So, has anyone watched it? Zuckerberg did and he said that all of the shirts used in the movie are the bits of clothing that he actually owns. What they got wrong he says is that he didn’t build Facebook to get a girl, he did it because he liked building nerdy stuff.
Check out a small clip of an interview on YouTube.