The Social Network Reflection

Profile: It is the name of the page that describes you on Facebook, it is a unique angle that frames the presidents on coins, it is a classic pose in a mug shot and it is also the first image of Mark Zuckerberg that is seen in the movie the social network.

One of the major themes throughout the film is the idea that popularity or coolness is the major motivator for Zuckerberg in his creation of Facebook. The opening shot is Mark from a side angle, the same angle that is seen of popular presidents on coins. This motivation may seem more innocent then the desire for power or money, but it is also one that leads him away from his real life friends in pursuit of the popularity that he can find in his online Facebook friends, a pursuit that ultimately ends in lawsuits filed against him by the one in life person that had called mark a friend. Early on in the film Mark justifies his creation of Facebook as different from the Winklevoss’ idea by stating “our thing is cool and popular. Their thing is lame.” This idea of popularity is seen as the sole motivator for Mark throughout the course of the film, however as the film goes on it is seen that while mark may be growing his social network site he is limiting the friends he has in real life and eventual by the end of the film he is seen in complete isolation. This is driven home in the last few minuets when Eduardo, while in the meeting regarding his lawsuit against Mark claims that he was Mark’s only friend. This lawsuit and the one brought forth by the Winklevoss twins also calls back to the first profile shot of Mark, in this instance instead of it being an indicator for the popular and cool person he wants to be it recalls the image of a criminals mug shot and shows the dark path Mark Zuckerberg ended up taking in order to attain the popularity he so valued.