So the other night I went and saw the movie "The Social Network," the film about the creation of the worldwide social-networking phenomenon, Facebook. The movie started off with a late night conversation between Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend at the time, Erica Albright. After the fact that she broke up with him, he goes into his dorm room and starts establishing Facemash on his computer. This is a program where people can log on and rate girls and their hotness. He also manages to bash his now ex-girlfriend publicly on his blog, which ultimately keeps her out of the picture. Nevertheless, he eventually meets up with a few guys who have an idea to create a social networking site where people can communicate through one website. Mark (the genius computer programmer he is) takes this idea into his own hands and after some odd days sitting behind his computer, he eventually creates what we know now as Facebook. Within hours, he has thousands of people logging on and connecting to the site and becoming "friends." After a couple legal battles and business hook-ups with people like Sean Parker (inventor of the free music downloading website Napster), Mark becomes the youngest billion in history. So much for going to school and getting a degree to make money.
So after watching this film, it is interesting to realize how Facebook was created and how far it has come since it was first made public to the world. After 6 or 7 years, I have come to realize that Facebook is an important part of our lives and our generation, just like the invention of the TV and microwave were so many many generations ago. For most of us, it is a daily routine to log on to our computers and check our Facebook page for updates, tags in photos and just to see what people are doing. Since when did it become so interesting to know what people are doing? That's my question. Yet, it is still necessary for me to scroll down the entire page to look at what Joe Schmoe from Idaho did exactly 23 minutes ago, or what he will be doing with his day. After I log off, I realize I have no idea what I am doing because I just wasted 2 hours on Facebook. It really is eerily addicting, like a drug. People do it everyday (3-5 times a day on average according to the Blogger poll) and when we do not have access to it for some time, or just can't get to a computer for while, most people will check their Facebook before anything else as soon as they can to fulfill their addiction and need to log onto it.
Mark Zuckerberg is a genius. His computer programming skills and his intuition combined have created the most popular webpage in the world and that is something crazy! He has literally changed our generation and the way we live our lives. How can one person be solely responsible for this type of radical change in communication? He has revolutionized the way people connect to one another. He has made it possible for one person to know basically everything about another person without ever talking to them. The idea that you actually have to talk to someone to find out who they are and what they like is becoming obsolete. Although I'm not so sure this is the best thing to happen to a worldwide population, I can say that Facebook sure is the most popular way to communicate nowadays. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check my Facebook. Thank you Mark Zuckerberg.
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