We all enjoy hanging out with our friends. Who doesn’t want to enjoy a night on the town with their pals? The idea of heading to concerts or living it up at parties is certainly an enticing one. Many of us would do pretty much anything with our “besties” or our “homeboys.” But would you want to go into business with them? Would you feel comfortable knowing that one of your friends might be making more than you?
Well, 22 years ago, that was the case for a young student who worked together with his best friend to launch a site you might have heard of: Facebook. He couldn’t have known it then, but his site exclusively for Harvard students would become one of the largest social platforms in the world, creating a company worth over $1.5 trillion.
That student’s name was Mark Zuckerberg, and his story forms the core of The Social Network.
Based on Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. Released in the autumn of 2010, it chronicles the founding of Facebook and the web of betrayal and lawsuits that came from it.
Despite appearing to focus on Facebook, the film is a classic tale of the complex nature of friendships and the moral dilemma of sacrificing personal relationships for success.
In the fall of 2003, Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg is dumped by his girlfriend. As a coping mechanism, he creates the website Facemash to rate the “hotness” of female undergraduates. Mark catches the attention of the Winklevoss twins, who want to work with him in creating a Harvard networking site. Intrigued by the idea, he works with his friend Eduardo Saverin to launch Facebook. While the site enjoys exponential success, Zuckerberg secretly pushes Saverin out of the company without his knowledge.
At the heart of The Social Network is the relationship between Zuckerberg and Saverin. At first, they’re brothers-in-arms who work together to launch and keep Facebook afloat. However, Zuckerberg’s greed and hunger for power overpowers his connection with Saverin, motivating Zuckerberg to go behind Saverin’s back and sack him from the company.
If you were to play devil’s advocate, you could argue Zuckerberg did the right thing. From a business perspective, Saverin wasn’t doing his job and it could be argued that he was actually hurting the company. However, from a personal lens, Zuckerberg cold-heartedly betrayed the only one who cared for him. In Saverin’s own words, “I was your only friend.”
This situation creates a thought-provoking scenario for viewers, as there isn’t a clear protagonist or antagonist. At some moments, you might root for Zuckerberg, while at others, you might sympathize with Saverin. They’re both morally ambiguous; neither are exactly a hero or villain. Zuckerberg and Saverin play these roles interchangeably depending on the mindset of the viewer.
However, it’s important to note that the movie’s inspiration, The Accidental Billionaires, has been heavily disputed in its accuracy of the actual events. It relied solely on information provided by Eduardo Saverin, who was suing Mark Zuckerberg at the time and so portrays events from his perspective.
Despite its questionable historical accuracy, The Social Network encapsulates the nuanced realities of trying to maintain friendships while trying to make a name for yourself. In the end, Zuckerberg became one of the richest people on earth, but was it really worth it? Was it worth lying to the Winklevoss twins? Was it worth betraying his only true friend? He achieved everything he ever wanted, but at the cost of his relationships.
In the end, to build his media empire, Zuckerberg sacrificed one real friend for 500 million fake ones. Whether or not he was right in doing that is for you to decide.
