The Social Network (2010) portrays the creation of Facebook, acknowledging the technological advancements and the ethical violations by its founder, Mark Zuckerburg. This section will primarily focus on the network technologies used in the film, in particular the personal communication, privacy, and ethical concerns. In The Social Network, network communication was the foundation that allowed for the creation and spreading of Facebook. Technologies such as text messaging, email, and university network domains were the predominant ways to grow Facebook. These same exact tools were also used in unethical ways, which raised concerns regarding privacy, network abuse, and social manipulation.
Emails and Text Messaging: In the beginning, we see Mark using emails and text messages to send information and get the word of Facebook around. These pieces of evidence provided the proof with Mark’s interactions with the Winklevoss brothers, which made it important for the intellectual property court case.
Facemash and University Networks: Facemash is the first of Mark’s ability to manipulate communication technologies. By using his access to Harvard websites and domains, he was able to scrape the data from other university websites without any permission. The scene reveals the power in the network communications, while also unveils the vulnerabilities in such networks.
The Harvard and Stanford Domains: Having the prestige of an email domain “harvard.edu” and “standford.edu” was crucial to the growth of Facebook. In the movie, it’s been shown that people would trust a random link from someone with Harvard email domain, Facemash. By leveraging this knowledge, Mark was able to use the prestigious name of Harvard to then spread Facebook to Stanford, and have it propagated from then on.
Wider Social Implications relating to Portrayal of Networked Communications
The social implications of The Social Network’s portrayal of Facebook’s rise demonstrate the power and danger of networked communications, especially in the early 2000s. Data sharing and communication on multiple platforms can be used for constructive and unethical purposes. The usage of email and text messages to spread Facemash without any prior consent, and the unauthorized data scraping, displays the potential for network communication technologies to violate privacy. Another interesting thing that happened as Facebook grew and became popular it changed social dynamics. As more and more users joined, other people felt pressured to join in all of the excitement. But even more than that, the defining feature of Facebook, relationship status, further affected personal relationships. When Eduardo Saverin broke up with his girlfriend, the driving factor to the split was his relationship status of "single" on Facebook.