12 October 2010 (Movie Feature)

Words: Mark 'Lenny' Linehan

IN the 21st century if we were to reconsider the four elements of the world; Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Surely, we would need to add a fifth - Facebook.

The Social Network monster has spread like a virus since its inception in 2004 rapidly eroding MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo and any competition to sit firmly at the top. And, perched on the throne of this empire is Mark Zuckerberg. The figures are dazzling. 500 million 'friends' (as a country it would be the third highest populated in the world, just behind superpowers India and China), 207 countries signed up, 1400 employees, a company worth $25 billion, and his personal worth of $6.5 bn. Not bad, for the 26-year-old son of a Dentist and Psychiatrist from the middle-class suburban enclave of Dobbs Ferry in New York.

"Zuck" as he is known to his inner circle showed huge promise as a computer prodigy at an early age. While kids played computer games, he designed them. He designed software for his dad's business, which he dubbed 'Zuchnet,' (basically an early form of Instant Messaging) and was in a graduate computer training class as his age reached double figures. Before heading for Harvard he created a program called Synapse, which used Artificial Intelligence to track a user's habits, and was head-hunted by both AOL and Microsoft. Zuck rejected their offers (in 2006 he turned down an offer of $1 bn to sell Facebook to Yahoo!). A sign of his singular solipsistic vision perhaps.

At Harvard he was a hit with the geek brigade. He created Coursematch (an application to see what other people had picked) Facemash (basically a Hot or Not female rating game) and then finally onto his baby, Facebook. Although, fellow students Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss see it differently. The twin brothers reckon he snatched their child. They bankrolled Zuckerberg to create their idea, Harvard Connection, but instead he found, fed, and focused on 'thefacebook', eventually becoming today's web juggernaut. He also fell out with Eduardo Severin, another co-founder and financial arm who was eventually unceremoniously severed.

This has led to a continuing series of litigation cases with all involved and most of these provide the narrative arc for The Social Network. Dark and atmospheric it is like an episode of The Big Bang Theory written by George Orwell and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie, actually directed by David Fincher (one scene involves students hacking in a darkened room and is like a Fight Club for geeks)  has portrayed him as a Machiavellian sociopathic genius with no time for human engagement and very little ability for conversation, unless it involves information codes passing from one source to another. It shows him as the master of a universe he created and we are all his lab rats in this experiment. This extract from The New Yorker magazine of one of his early IMs (while building Facebook) has not helped the Zuck PR machine:

ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard
ZUCK: just ask
ZUCK: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns
FRIEND: what!? how’d you manage that one?
ZUCK: people just submitted it
ZUCK: i don’t know why
ZUCK: they “trust me”
ZUCK: dumb fucks

Plenty more conversations were leaked, but Zuck has distanced himself saying that he has matured a lot since then. Facebook recently got into trouble for it's 'Beacon' application that tracked what people bought and sent that information to advertisers. This was deemed an invasion of privacy, and 'trust' had been breached. It didn't stop people signing up. 500 million and counting. However, all these numbers don't seem to have gone to his head, the unassuming billionaire only recently moved with his girlfriend Pricilla Chan into a two-storey four bedroom house near his base of Palo Alto, California. His previous one bedroom was too small and described by him as a "crack den." He has no Bugatti, no yacht, no Playboy models hanging off his arm.

If the Internet is the "information highway" then Zuckerberg is in the driving seat. The socially awkward Harvard dropout now sits around the table with Internet Kings Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google Gods), he is fast becoming as wealthy as Bill Gates, and has the fashion sense of Steve Jobs. And, according to a telling line in the new movie, he will be around for a long time to come, 'Facebook is like fashion, fashion never finishes.' Be afraid, be very afraid.

Oh, and if you like this article please put it up on erm, Facebook.

 

 

 

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