There are many pros and cons to being a self-absorbed individual. Pro: No one is smarter than you and if they are, “who cares!”, because all you care about is yourself anyway. Another pro is if you create a popular website, you don’t have to share the credit because it’s your own work, even if it was inspired by other peoples’ ideas. On the contrary a con would be that you have very few friends and a whole bunch of people who want to ride your coat tail to go with you to the top. Another con is that being concerned with your own ideas all the time distracts you from the idea that other perceptions do exist and they actually do matter no matter how much you convince yourself that they don’t. In the movie “The Social Network”, the brilliant, tech savvy Harvard University sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg works endlessly to create the popular site Facebook. He learns quickly that there are a lot of challenges and sacrifices to be made in order to run a successful multi-billion company. This analysis will present how the progression of technology has positively and negatively affected how Zuckerberg’s personal, professional, and Intrapersonal relationships can be perceived in the film.
When Mark came up with the idea for the Facebook, the first thing he did was found his best friend Eduardo Saverin to share his news, but while focusing on the development of the site, Mark doesn’t realize his friendship with Eduardo would soon diminish. After the opening scene of the movie in which Erica Albright breaks up with Mark, Eduardo meets his friend in his dorm room, ready to console him. Instead of finding an upset friend, he finds an intoxicated Mark who is already out to seek revenge on his ex-girlfriend by blogging about her online. He even takes it further and creates the site Facemash.com, where people can rate girls by how attractive they are. The site got some unwanted backlash for Mark as he received disciplinary action from Harvard University. He later pitches an idea to “Uardo” as he called him, about a website (later to be named “The Facebook”) that he’ll need help with. Meanwhile at the same time Eduardo shares good news about being punched by one of the elite and exclusive final clubs, the Phoenix. The further he advanced into the program, the more Eduardo believed Mark was jealous of his membership. Despite this observation, Eduardo still tries to involve himself with the successful site as much as possible, since he was after all given the title CFO of the company. Once meeting with Sean Parker who suggested that they expand to California, Mark and Eduardo really started to have differences in opinion surrounding the site.
Shortly after sitting down and meeting with Sean Parker, creator of Napster Mark sees that they both share much in common and sees him as a mentor. Eduardo’s first impression of him on the other hand, based on past rumors of drug use, is that he’s untrustworthy and a threat to the company. As Facebook continued to progress after moving to California, Eduardo starts to see Mark switch his allegiance to his new right hand man Sean. In a conversation with Eduardo, Mark tells his friend if he doesn’t move to California with the company, he fears that he will be “left behind”. Sensing the tension between Facebook's CFO and CEO, Sean Parker sets up an important interview with investors that will ultimately squeeze Eduardo out of the company for good. Sean foresaw the potential for the site and knew Eduardo as an easy target to get rid of so that he can be a part of the ground breaking phenomenon otherwise known as Facebook.
The film clearly indicates who Zuckerberg is through the views of others but also in how he views himself. For example He is a college sophomore at the prestigious Harvard University, the best friend of Eduardo Saverin, a coder and the creator of Facebook. His self-concept is that he is an above average individual with a perfect 1600 SAT score to prove it. Throughout the movie, Mark seems to possess something called low self-monitoring. Self-monitoring according to the McGraw text is “an awareness of how you look and sound and how your behavior is affecting those around you”. (Someone with low self-monitoring usually doesn’t pay much attention to the impression that they are creating, while someone with high self-monitoring adjust their behaviors in order for others to perceive them in a desired light). Mark has very high self-esteem and is very comfortable expressing his thoughts and ideas to others without considering how it affects them (low self-monitoring). For example, when Eduardo suggests generating a revenue stream for the Facebook, Mark shuts down the idea saying that it would take away from the site simply being cool. Though Mark’s personality would seem as it if he possesses qualities of low self-monitoring, it almost seems as if it is selective. For example, when Eduardo confronts Mark about not picking him up from the airport when coming to California, instead of acknowledging his behavior, he starts talking about all the work that he accomplished on the website, disregarding Eduardo’s anger and disappointment with his friend. But as time went on and Eduardo was released from the company, Mark started to show remorse understanding that his actions played a role in his friend’s termination.
In closing, Facebook is just as popular today as it was when it first launched. I imagine that after doing a self-inventory, Zuckerberg was able to be a little less preoccupied with himself in order to continue the empire that is standing today. Of course there were many structural changes that have taken place over the years and, the conflicts with his friend, the building of new professional relationships and his own self-reflection cultivated something groundbreaking. That being said, change has to take place in order for growth to occur, but it has to start with self.
