The Social Network

Add me on Facebook at cuteako_27@yahoo.com.ph. Please do.

Of the 18 million Filipino users, such request is but a needle in a haystack.

To date, the Philippines ranks 6^th for the most number of users around the globe and it would be very likely that even kids who have yet to enter school have their own account. The advent of social networking has definitely seeped into our bloodstream.

“Facebook has 500 million members in 207 countries. It’s currently valued at 25 billion dollars.” It is no miracle that its creators reach Forbes richest billionaires and its story to reach this massive success is no joke.

The Social Network tells about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his best friend Eduardo Saverin  and how they developed the site into a huge online networking phenomenon. Because the website was such a big hit among Harvard students and has attracted over a million members in two years, Mark was later sued by Saverin and pioneer financers the Winklevoss and accused him of stealing their ideas. In the end, both parties settled and Facebook remains to be a high commercial success to date.

Armed with good scriptwriting by Aaron Sorkin, Social Network dramatically illustrates the life of Zuckerberg as a teenager and his frustrations in college where a geek like him is an outcast to the school’s exclusive organizations.

Every character has been given the chance to build his own form without sacrificing the credibility of the actual facts about them. With great direction from David Fincher, he was successful not only to let his actors portray their character but gave chance for viewers to find a counterpart like them in the movie. Viewers will be absorbed in the story itself and find the plot incredibly surprising as it progress.

The struggle for prestige, fame and money has been part of our daily existence. We would not want to settle for unsatisfactory results  when we have the oppportunity to get better. The movie also presents emnity between friends, foes and free loaders like the The Winklevoss who for an instance claimed to be the original proponents of “Facebook” when in fact they do not have the intellectual ability to create it.

Everyone has an idea for that pivotal grand plan. What sets Mark different from the others is that he has taken an action to work that plan even though he was an undergraduate at the time of the site’s creation.

Almost every individual of todays generation has a Facebook account. The global unexplainable phenomenon of a once just-for-fun site has been contagious over the past years and has continually changed todays culture of communication and recreation.

Like him, there are hundreds who are regarded less or rather insignificant in the Lorma community.  Majority find comfort in relating personal experiences through the use of the internet. In a virtual world of the web, having a nice picture of your own or a better picture of someone else can instantly attract virtual friends.

Even the fact that we are a third world country does not bother users with the expenses required in maintaining an account just so they could post comments, upload pictures or play applications or games for hours in a cafe. A normal student in Lorma (kill me if I’m wrong) can’t barely stand 2 hours of  a single lecture subject but feels unsatisfied for 2 hours of surfing the net.

One has stayed connected with friends and has stalked other people’s lives through the internet. Filipinos have lived in a culture where talking about others is considered a just-fine -they-woud’nt-know-thing and so-what-if-they-know. And because of this networking site, many have discovered the perks of hawking over various profiles from all corners of the globe at a technologically advanced level. The site has certainly put an added icing to the cake.

It’s like modern day gossip amped up or a passing new trend or  a novelty for entertainment or for those who still have no idea, just log in to Facebook.