Media Yarn

Getting there first is everything…the social network.

Having just seen Aaron Sorkin’s film, The Social Network, I could not help myself but think one thing…I was there. Not that I had anything to do with the creation of facebook, but I can remember as a college senior receiving a ‘friend request’ to my @JMU.edu account, and thinking…’whats this?’ Who knew that filling in age, sex, location data would be so important to the success of this billion dollar company. At the time it was a chance to log on and see the ‘real name’ of that kid in my Psych 101 class who wore a sweatband to class everyday or to see the faces of Fairfield University, where my best friend from Floral Park was attending. Passive Communication. Meanwhile a product had been already doing this for years, AOL’s instant messenger AIM. Status messages were called ‘away messages’, profile data was ‘buddy info’, and profile photos were ‘buddy icons.’ I’m not just saying this because I dedicated more than 4 years of my life to improving the product, but the obvious point that there are very little new ideas today but unique takes on old ideas. 

Ok so the secret to billions is being an asshole and scoring with Asian chicks? I sure hope not. I also hope that the youth of today did not walk out of the movie thinking that all frat parties include table top dancing and strip poker or that Palo Alto is full of swanky night clubs (maybe I was just invited to the wrong parties :/). One thing I think the movie did do well was highlight the themes of loyalty, power, ambition, greed and the turmoil felt by many start-ups over the past decade. In addition, the film’s score was composed by NIN’s Trent Reznor which brilliantly added to the tension-filled-furiously coding moments. Looking forward to another decade of products developed by young brilliant minds.