After the Social Network

This is a movie to see. If you haven't gone out and seen it, please do before it leaves theaters.

Aside from the interesting story it depicts behind the startup of the company that made the youngest billionaire alive that is in fact not true in some key places but we allow for the sake of the plot, there is an interesting point the movie takes that is only one part of it, though a crucial part. Is facebook a waste of time? Are social networks one of the worst parts of our lives in the twenty first century that only carries with a replacement for real social interaction, face to face as they say?

I don't think they are.

Zuckerberg made a few brilliant moves to get him where he is, but it was the idea that carried facebook. He took the social experience and put it on the internet. Simple. We're social creatures, we watch each other, we imitate each other, we disagree with each other, so why not put it online? Yes, that's the point.

If facebook is all a person does for their social time, they're probably depressed and headed for a cycle that they need to break. It alone will not fulfill a person. However, it is affirming and it's a way to connect to people in ways we couldn't before. I affirm it. Get on facebook, just don't stay on it all the time.

Point two. Zuckerberg is in many ways a model for something new and where I believe business and work are headed. There's a kind of integration he did with his own life and facebook that is refreshing and personal, and much needed in the business world. Ideas are valuable, and they are dangerous, and yes, they can make a person a lot of money. Corporations are heading for something different, not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of keeping up with a changing world.

This movie is a nice late ending to an overall bad summer for movies. Inception and Scott Pilgrim were good, but this one holds its own. Besides, I love Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin).