Facebook? "The Social Network" leads, but doesn't tell.
The Social Networkisn't just a story about the genesis of Facebook..it drives a deeper question to the surface...which is,"Who, and what are we made of that this social network has become such an intercontinental, international social glue of disparate human beings?
The reason is,and one of the things that most fascinates and drives me - "What makes us the same?" Because what makes us the same is the 'glue'.
Here is my list:
We all need: Food, shelter, water. We have a need as a species to procreate; we as a species to seek nurture and love. We respond to beauty, touch, love, cruelty, pain and hatred. We are inspired by the heroic, the survivor against all odds. We have a need to believe that our fragile, brief existence has a deeper purpose... and that our existence wasn't just dust in the wind.
The need for nurture versus nature led Facebook to metastasize across all boundaries of culture, social caste and geography with unforeseen, but understandable consequence.
The onset of industrialization has driven modern societies to become de-socialised... and the consequence of that has been an isolated, lonely population with the very human and normal need to be connected to other human beings. Humans want their brief existence..be it daily or on a grander scale... to have meant something to someone.What we like, what we dislike,how many friends we have, what we do, who we are,where we go...everything....everything means that WE WERE HERE.
A line from a corny,not so well known movie about a gorilla said something quite profound; it was"All creatures are happiest when they're understood." All creaturesTrue...I see that and hear that as a truth. I understand what that means...and what Facebook did was try to create a bridge that most people have a hard time building about who and what they are. It gave people a format so that they didn't have to figure it out.Now it has gone to another level where there are so many fake profiles, it has often defeated the purpose it was built for. Nonetheless...WOW.... from an evolutionary perspective...WOW...that the world was ready, and adapted to using this new tool so quickly. This is not a bow and arrow, penicillin nor electricity...but it is no less of a phenomena because it cannot ignore the fact that as human beings, our emotional needs are as important as our physiological needs.
The 'between the lines' story in The Social Network...is that the characters are no less human than those they have captured in Facebookland...that is what fascinates; that these brilliant minds are just as vulnerable and human as any others. They are human and they are flawed and that always grabs us...because we can identify, maybe not with the thought process... but with the 'heart 'process.
I am still trying to understand my own complicity and reality within Fabebookland. I cannot add anymore friends. Facebook has blocked me from adding anymore; I do not know why. I do know that I have met many people in realtime, because of Facebook, and only because of Facebook that I would never have met under any other circumstances... and for that I am very thankful. I know that it has given me a platform with which to give my vision and art a broader audience- and for that I am thankful.That that audience has mushroomed in the last year and a half tells me that being personal and having an opinion is a good thing.That a defined value system and sense of self is a good thing that it is palpable across a computer screen.That I have an ability to connect to people who are different than me...means that underneath it all...we are the same.
That's where "The Social Network" leads us.That is the story.
The reason is,and one of the things that most fascinates and drives me - "What makes us the same?" Because what makes us the same is the 'glue'.
Here is my list:
We all need: Food, shelter, water. We have a need as a species to procreate; we as a species to seek nurture and love. We respond to beauty, touch, love, cruelty, pain and hatred. We are inspired by the heroic, the survivor against all odds. We have a need to believe that our fragile, brief existence has a deeper purpose... and that our existence wasn't just dust in the wind.
The need for nurture versus nature led Facebook to metastasize across all boundaries of culture, social caste and geography with unforeseen, but understandable consequence.
The onset of industrialization has driven modern societies to become de-socialised... and the consequence of that has been an isolated, lonely population with the very human and normal need to be connected to other human beings. Humans want their brief existence..be it daily or on a grander scale... to have meant something to someone.What we like, what we dislike,how many friends we have, what we do, who we are,where we go...everything....everything means that WE WERE HERE.
A line from a corny,not so well known movie about a gorilla said something quite profound; it was"All creatures are happiest when they're understood." All creaturesTrue...I see that and hear that as a truth. I understand what that means...and what Facebook did was try to create a bridge that most people have a hard time building about who and what they are. It gave people a format so that they didn't have to figure it out.Now it has gone to another level where there are so many fake profiles, it has often defeated the purpose it was built for. Nonetheless...WOW.... from an evolutionary perspective...WOW...that the world was ready, and adapted to using this new tool so quickly. This is not a bow and arrow, penicillin nor electricity...but it is no less of a phenomena because it cannot ignore the fact that as human beings, our emotional needs are as important as our physiological needs.
The 'between the lines' story in The Social Network...is that the characters are no less human than those they have captured in Facebookland...that is what fascinates; that these brilliant minds are just as vulnerable and human as any others. They are human and they are flawed and that always grabs us...because we can identify, maybe not with the thought process... but with the 'heart 'process.
I am still trying to understand my own complicity and reality within Fabebookland. I cannot add anymore friends. Facebook has blocked me from adding anymore; I do not know why. I do know that I have met many people in realtime, because of Facebook, and only because of Facebook that I would never have met under any other circumstances... and for that I am very thankful. I know that it has given me a platform with which to give my vision and art a broader audience- and for that I am thankful.That that audience has mushroomed in the last year and a half tells me that being personal and having an opinion is a good thing.That a defined value system and sense of self is a good thing that it is palpable across a computer screen.That I have an ability to connect to people who are different than me...means that underneath it all...we are the same.
That's where "The Social Network" leads us.That is the story.