The Social Network

Simply put: “The Social Network” is a great movie with a timely topic. The film explores the beginnings of facebook and the legal actions taken against founder Mark Zuckerburg. It’s a drama with a sense of humor, a relevant story, a strong script, and good acting – the kind of movie that is already getting Oscar buzz. It also throws even more of a national spotlight on what is often our nation’s most visited website.

Love it or hate it, facebook is a phenomenon for everyone from pre-teens to grandparents alike. I often refer to it as the weirdest party I have ever attended, with various “Raines Worlds” colliding for sure. As a teacher, I do not accept friend requests from current students, but I am facebook friends with hundreds of former students. I am also now connected with my fraternity brothers from college, high school friends, co-workers from my television career and my current teaching career, close friends, family, and people from other countries I have met through personal travel and mission trips. Many of these people remember what it was like before cell phones, cable television, and the Internet. Some of my extended family can remember a time without indoor plumbing, so seeing them in the world of LOL and emoticon =) facebook posts is just bizarre.


For all the concerns and even complaints about the perils of facebook, I enjoy the ability to stay in touch with people across the miles and even decades. More than anything it has been a great way to stay in touch with former students, many who have gone into the industry I teach. Just a week ago, one of my former students messaged me on facebook while in town on a location shoot. Of course, facebook can be addictive, self-serving, sadly too revealing, and dangerous if you are not careful -- but so are a lot of things. I definitely caution parents to be actively involved with their children’s on-line facebook community.

My favorite facebook users are the ones who are always posting things to promote their business or life activities, and they ask often if you have seen their posted items. But, they never follow or check out the similar posts of their close friends. It’s similar to people who primarily use their cell phone to reach other people, but have no real interest in being able to be reached on that very same phone. Facebook, like communication in general, really should have senders, receivers, and feedback.

A few tricks that have made my facebook experience better:

• Friend Groups – I have slowly organized all of my facebook friends into groups, which allows you to have newsfeeds for each group. This allows me to just check in on the groups of people I am most interested in. It also gives you the option to be off-line with some groups and on-line with others in live chat.

• Game Hiding -- you can hide any of the game posts on the newsfeed like FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Bejeweled, etc. – it’s Ok if you want to play it, I just do not want to know all about it.

• Emails – newer users do not always realize all notifications do not have to come to you email inbox. I stopped that a long time ago.
(If you are relatively new to facebook and would like to know how to do any of the above, send me a facebook message, and I can help.)

One of my favorite parts of "The Social Network" movie is when Zuckerburg comes up with the “Relationship Status” for the profile. It was a last minute addition before facebook went live on the Internet. I am usually amused at the hearts or broken hearts on the newsfeed when people publicly declare a new or recently ended relationship. It just seems like an odd thing to share this way. That’s one function on facebook you will not see me use. It is too complicated.

After watching “The Social Network” with my friend, we had completely different takeaways. My friend realized he has an idea that he thinks could propel him into a financial windfall, kind of like Mark Zuckerburg, and the movie made him want to get started and make millions. For me, the movie reminded me that even with a billion dollar business and a million facebook friends, you could still be poor in spirit and relationships.

As much as I value the facebook experience, relationships with people live and in person will always be way more valuable.