The Social Network's Gray Area (Film Analysis) by Cecilia Mejia

Anthon St. Maarten, author of Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny said “If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation.” Everything in life has a sense of duality to it. To feel one thing, a person must have experienced the opposite, similar to how someone knows what they do not like before they know what they do like. The Social Network displayed the duality of the creator Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. Facebook started as a networking site for Harvard students, the idea being exclusivity but social media had grown and expanded faster than the creators knew possible. Mark Zuckerberg, being in the top 100 wealthiest and influential people in the world, has some issues of his own. The movie does an excellent job of telling two sides of the story, Mark’s and his partners Eduardo.

Mark Zuckerberg is the main character of the movie. In the beginning scenes, Mark is having dinner with his girlfriend, where he was portrayed as an insensitive but intelligent boy. This was the first example of duality we can see for the character Zuckerberg. For a boy genius, he sure does say all the wrong things. In most cases, when someone is book smart, they tend not to be as inclined involving human connections. The second example of duality is in Zuckerberg’s thought process. Throughout the beginning of the movie, he claims that Facebook could not have been created without his partner. He understands that Facebook is a group effort, financials must be drawn from somewhere else, as well as he would need other people for coding. But by the end of the movie, Zuckerberg no longer feels like a team had built the website. He no longer accredits his partner Eduardo and schemes him out of his 30% shares. Obviously, the movie shows that duality in Zuckerberg is a negative thing. In the scenes where he is talking to the woman on his case -- he is nice to her, asking if she would like to eat something more than a salad but rude to all the other lawyers. Mark Zuckerberg is a super smart boy who is also an idiot, the really friendly boy who can be a jerk at times, Mark Zuckerberg was a broke college student who could not invest $1000 into the creation of Facebook but became one of the wealthiest men alive.

The creation of Facebook and the app itself has a sense of duality. The creation of Facebook, proposed by the twin brothers was meant to be exclusive to Harvard students only. The twin brother said Harvard students wanted to date follow Harvard students and the app was supposed to make contact between the more accessible. Social media was not meant to be exclusive and that is why the website had spread to other campuses quickly. The exclusiveness to being invited and personally sharing this information became addicted to the students. Facebook has now become so accessible, that there are many dangers to it. Many parents feel the need to monitor their children’s use a Facebook due to the easy way it can connect predators to their naive kids. Facebook had become riddled with data misusages and fake news that the website had to be purged. The once exclusive nature of the website has become a quick and easy channel for people to connect with others, wanted or not.

Another interesting example of duality was in the partnership of Mark and his friend Eduardo. His friend met all the social cues that Mark could not, he was invited to join a fraternity and seem to get along with females much easier. But it could be that Mark saw Eduardo as a way to fund the project that he cannot. He asked for $1,000 to jump start and gave him a title with responsibilities. Throughout the movie, when Eduardo would return home from trying to gather investors, he would act as a husband to an ungrateful wife. He was tired, tired of working and tired of being rejected. In the scene where he had just arrived home, all his friend wanted was a ride from the airport. Eduardo still looked to Mark as a friend when Mark saw him as his business’ checking account. This also makes social commentary on the dangers of dealing business with friends because of the trust and the ability to hurt the other, similar to how Mark tricked Eduardo into losing all his shares.

The movie sheds a little bit light on duality in both sides of the story of how Facebook was created. Mark Zuckerberg is not only one of the wealthiest man alive but someone who made billions off of the backs of his friends. Mark Zuckerberg is innovative and insanely smart but he was unsympathetic even when he sat face to face with the guys he stole the idea from. There’s even a sense of duality in the concept that the idea was stolen, although Facebook did begin as a Harvard exclusive website Mark Zuckerberg did create the website independently away from any support the brothers may have offered. The audience got to see the way his partnerships progressed and ended and finally how Facebook came to be. Some call it duality, some say two sides to the same coin, but Facebook and the idea being stolen falls into a large gray area. But that gray area could just be what duality is all about, not one or the other but somewhere mushed between both.

Cecilia Mejia
Professor Strimel
English 114
29 May 2018
The Social Network’s Gray Area