thefacebook

I watched the Social Network tonight for the first time, and it brought out a lot of emotions in me. Not just about the way Mark Zuckerberg's character (because I can't say how realistic the portrayal is) but about Facebook itself.

I remember joining Facebook back when it was thefacebook. I'm one of the select people who joined Facebook back when you had to have a specific college email address to get it done. I found thefacebook before I was allowed to join it, and I remember the day when it came to TCU.

I joined for the same reason Mark Zuckerberg thought I would join - for a girl. I remember the day I joined, after being a hold out for a long time. As soon as I was found, people gloated as another person joined the flock. It wasn't just a big deal for you to be on the web site...all of your friends had to be on there too.

When it became less exclusive, I felt it lost something. The movie discusses facebook's popularity as being based on being "cool." And I thought it was cool because it was exclusive. When high schools joined, it diluted. When everyone joined, it was no longer special.

For a long time, I didn't really care about it. I had a profile, but I never really added anything to it. From the beginning, I said that I would never put too much information on the site, and I still haven't to this day. But sometime in the last couple of years, I've really started paying more attention to it. One of the first apps I added to my iPhone (another thing I held out from for a long time and then became addicted) was the facebook app. And I check the site no less than ten times every day...without fail.

If you asked me why, I don't know. I have 339 friends on the site, but I haven't spoken with about 300 of them in the last five years. I probably need to prune the list, but I don't even think it's about having friends anymore. Its about being connected. You add someone as a friend and then never speak with them. Because at the end of the day, you probably don't care about them.

There's no question the site has changed our lives forever. If you're talking about the history of the internet, you might as well be talking about the history of the Internet. Mark Zuckerberg has impacted this world, whether he's a douchebag or not.

Which brings me to Mark himself. After the movie, Zuckerberg hit the airwaves trying to be likeable. And I don't really think it worked...Mark seems like the same jerk he was in the movie. But he does deserve a lot of the money he has because facebook might be the best idea in a long time.

But it made me think about the price he was willing to take to destroy his friendship with his best friend. He was seduced by money, power, women, and a slick "entrepreneur" named Sean Parker. And, in the end, he tried to cheat his best friend (and only original ally) out of money that was rightly his.

And I wonder what would happen if I was in the same situation. Would I take a billion dollars to destroy my best friendship? Five hundred million? One million? Would it be wrong to say that friendship is priceless? Would it be stupid?

I have ideas that I think could sell. It's easy to work with those closest to you. If I sold one of the ideas with my friend as an equal partner, would the friendship survive? Tucker told me that friendships don't survive business relationships. Not "rarely" or "don't always" survive. Never survive. 100%.

And it's basically because we're weak. When money enters the equation, priorities change. Because people are attracted to money, friends are never at a shortage when you're rich. And friendships fall apart all the time. Heck, one of the reasons why Facebook is so popular is that we lose track of people really quickly. How many people have one best friend for their entire life? How many people have less than five?

In the movie, Eduardo started out as Mark's best friend. Sean Parker quickly replaced Eduardo. Someone probably replaced Sean.

But what's funny is that Mark wasn't changed by money. He's an asshole at the beginning of the movie, and he's an asshole at the end. But he's certainly a smart guy, and he took advantage of a situation. And I'm sure his story isn't unique. I would bet that every major corporation has a similar story.

Which, in a lot of ways, is a bit depressing.