(The) Social Network Reflection

Watching The Social Network back oddly felt like like I was stepping into my own life. Every reference and and scene somehow seemed so close to home and in reality, it was. My dad was in a Final Club at Harvard called the Owl Club. I remember him taking us to visit his house and seeing what really went on behind the doors. I also noticed that a few of the scenes were shot at my brothers’ boarding school, Phillips Academy Andover. I’ve had friends that row at the Henley Royal Regatta every year, like the Winklevoss twins did. Realizing all of these connections made me reflect on how privileged my life really is. I know many people watch this film and think, “I wonder what it would be like to be there, to live like that.” Strangely enough, I know exactly what it is like. I went to school with the likes of John Kerry and internet moguls like Zuckerberg. Even though I can’t say “I was there” when Facebook swept the Harvard campus, it certainly felt like I was.

I don’t mean any of this to sound pretentious or extremely insensitive, I just have never seen a film that I have related to on such a close level. I realize that many of my friends that I loved in high school may turn into this “asshole” stereotype that many successful people fit into. It is not because they have always been assholes that they become assholes, they just believe that the only way to ever “make it” is to become one. I think that this film does a very good job of demonstrating Zuckerberg’s transition from socially inept to cocky billionaire. It is somewhere in the middle of this transition that he found himself, then lost himself again.