Social Network & What Makes Zuck Tick

When I first saw The Social Network in theaters I took the portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg as factual, although I didn't much care for the film. The second time through, however, I found myself doubting the factuality of a lot of the events, however I enjoyed the film more. I think if I were Mark Zuckerberg, however, I would strongly dislike the film.

Social Network portrays Zuckerberg as a sex-driven asshole entrepreneur, building Facebook to win the favor of his ex-girlfriend. The film also portrays Zuckerberg as jealous, often screwing over his co-founder Eduardo Saverin because he made it into an exclusive club that Mark wanted to join. The real Zuckerberg, as I can gather from interviews, is more product driven, closer to Steve Jobs in his motivation.

The interview with Mark that we watched in class did a fine job portraying Zuckerberg as purpose-driven, continually improving Facebook for the good of Facebook itself, never for monetary gain. This point is touched on in the film, but never developed, instead being abandoned for the more dramatized version of events from the book The Accidental Billionaires. This book, interestingly enough, was written mainly from accounts given by Saverin, which may explain some of the skewed facts.

Regardless, upon my second viewing I was able to appreciate the entrepreneurial buzz surrounding Zuckerberg. This buzz, similar to that surrounding Jobs and the Google creators, defined the age of the Internet boom and its inevitable aftermath.