It's been widely remarked that The Social Network isn't about social networking: it's about the genesis of any kind of empire. Maybe so, but whatever his creators' intentions, the Mark Zuckerberg confected by Aaron Sorkin, David Fincher and Jesse Eisenberg can't help taking on an emblematic quality. He seems to manifest in extreme form a reshaping of the human personality that his own invention is helping to bring about.
The question that Facebook chooses to put to us is "What's on your mind?" In the film's first scene, Eisenberg's version of Zuckerberg pours out the contents of his own mind to his girlfriend Erica with zero interest in either her preconceptions or response. She tells him he speaks as if "every thought that tumbles through your head was so clever it would be a crime for it not to be shared". As it happens, Zuckerberg's thoughts are indeed clever. In the world of digital discourse, however, stupid and nasty thoughts are tumbling out of the rest of us with the same lack of concern for those expected to share them.
Normally, the physical presence of others requires us to acknowledge both their interests and their feelings. You don't expect your friends to be enthralled by every one of your holiday snaps. When you speak, you generally allow your listeners to reply. Politeness, empathy, consideration, understanding and respect are forced upon you, not just in your speech but in your dealings, too.
The electronic world is different. Currently, my news feed tells me that a "friend" has just received a takeaway pizza and is drinking a glass of wine. Another reveals that she's having "a right old day of it". Another has acquired a scarf with a hood: if I'm not jealous, then I'm incredibly weird. We've become happy not just to bore but to abuse as well. I cling to the belief that my below-the-line critics on this column would be less scabrous to my face.
The Social Network's Zuckerberg behaves in real life as many of us do on the keyboard. He's wrapped up in his own grievances and ambitions. For him, other people are merely obstacles or stepping stones. The only world he's interested in is the one he's building himself. To Erica, that makes him "an asshole". If he is, then so, nowadays, are many of the rest of us, at least in our digital manifestations.
When we see Zuckerberg locked in front of a screen, isolated from his fellows and endlessly encoding his own insights, we see someone creating a world that will make the rest of us a little bit more like him. In this world, as that dog observed in Peter Steiner's famous cartoon, "nobody knows you're a dog". If deep down you're a bitch, you're free to allow free rein to your inner self.
This is much complained of by those who resent the passing of a more genteel age. None the less, it brings benefits. Dirty old men may be able to pose as teenagers to groom vulnerable youngsters. Yet at the same time, those endowed with an unfair share of beauty's bounty are stripped of their advantage. The disabled, like Avatar's Jake Sully, can become whole. The trouncing of courtesy is also the triumph of truth.
In The Social Network, Zuckerberg the unlovely nerd defeats the wealthy, handsome and well-connected Winklevoss twins by being better than them. In the electronic universe, such success comes easier than it does in the material world. There, merit needs no adornment. Gilded elites must cede ill-gotten privileges to more deserving newcomers. Everyone's granted a voice, however they choose to use it.
All the same, nostalgia for the old world infects even the new one's beneficiaries. Initially, Zuckerberg wants to enjoy the delights of the Winklevosses' walled Eden, not to lay it waste. He wouldn't be bothering Erica at all if he didn't feel some need for a girlfriend.
At the end of the film, he's shown gazing at Erica's Facebook info page. For those seeking a comforting Hollywood moral, this means he's realising what a big mistake he's made. Yet as deployed by Eisenberg, Zuckerberg's face isn't a means of displaying his feelings. He's a guy who expresses himself through computer code, not glances pregnant with purport.
It's possible to conclude that he's not pondering the error of his ways, but just weighing up their cost. The Social Network invites the rest of us to make a similar judgment. Have we lost or have we gained from the mutation of interaction?
The question that Facebook chooses to put to us is "What's on your mind?" In the film's first scene, Eisenberg's version of Zuckerberg pours out the contents of his own mind to his girlfriend Erica with zero interest in either her preconceptions or response. She tells him he speaks as if "every thought that tumbles through your head was so clever it would be a crime for it not to be shared". As it happens, Zuckerberg's thoughts are indeed clever. In the world of digital discourse, however, stupid and nasty thoughts are tumbling out of the rest of us with the same lack of concern for those expected to share them.Normally, the physical presence of others requires us to acknowledge both their interests and their feelings. You don't expect your friends to be enthralled by every one of your holiday snaps. When you speak, you generally allow your listeners to reply. Politeness, empathy, consideration, understanding and respect are forced upon you, not just in your speech but in your dealings, too.
The electronic world is different. Currently, my news feed tells me that a "friend" has just received a takeaway pizza and is drinking a glass of wine. Another reveals that she's having "a right old day of it". Another has acquired a scarf with a hood: if I'm not jealous, then I'm incredibly weird. We've become happy not just to bore but to abuse as well. I cling to the belief that my below-the-line critics on this column would be less scabrous to my face.
The Social Network's Zuckerberg behaves in real life as many of us do on the keyboard. He's wrapped up in his own grievances and ambitions. For him, other people are merely obstacles or stepping stones. The only world he's interested in is the one he's building himself. To Erica, that makes him "an asshole". If he is, then so, nowadays, are many of the rest of us, at least in our digital manifestations.
When we see Zuckerberg locked in front of a screen, isolated from his fellows and endlessly encoding his own insights, we see someone creating a world that will make the rest of us a little bit more like him. In this world, as that dog observed in Peter Steiner's famous cartoon, "nobody knows you're a dog". If deep down you're a bitch, you're free to allow free rein to your inner self.
This is much complained of by those who resent the passing of a more genteel age. None the less, it brings benefits. Dirty old men may be able to pose as teenagers to groom vulnerable youngsters. Yet at the same time, those endowed with an unfair share of beauty's bounty are stripped of their advantage. The disabled, like Avatar's Jake Sully, can become whole. The trouncing of courtesy is also the triumph of truth.
In The Social Network, Zuckerberg the unlovely nerd defeats the wealthy, handsome and well-connected Winklevoss twins by being better than them. In the electronic universe, such success comes easier than it does in the material world. There, merit needs no adornment. Gilded elites must cede ill-gotten privileges to more deserving newcomers. Everyone's granted a voice, however they choose to use it.
All the same, nostalgia for the old world infects even the new one's beneficiaries. Initially, Zuckerberg wants to enjoy the delights of the Winklevosses' walled Eden, not to lay it waste. He wouldn't be bothering Erica at all if he didn't feel some need for a girlfriend.
At the end of the film, he's shown gazing at Erica's Facebook info page. For those seeking a comforting Hollywood moral, this means he's realising what a big mistake he's made. Yet as deployed by Eisenberg, Zuckerberg's face isn't a means of displaying his feelings. He's a guy who expresses himself through computer code, not glances pregnant with purport.
It's possible to conclude that he's not pondering the error of his ways, but just weighing up their cost. The Social Network invites the rest of us to make a similar judgment. Have we lost or have we gained from the mutation of interaction?
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