Several years ago now my wife told me about a movie she thought I would like. The movie was The Social Network and boy was she right! She knows me well. At that time I was not on Facebook but she knows how much I love business-minded and entrepreneurial types of things.
For those who haven’t seen the movie, The Social Network is a film about the founding of the mammoth social networking website Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg. The film goes on to tell the story of lawsuits that took place against Zuckerberg. The tagline from the movie brilliantly captures this as “You Don’t Get To 500 Million Friends Without Making A Few Enemies”.
The Social Network – Facebooks Inception
Biographical dramas are maybe my favorite movie genre. Watching the events unfold and the story being told is quite entertaining for me. Some of my all-time favorites are The Doors, Walk the Line and Miracle. These movies are highly recommended if you haven’t seen them. Even if you have seen them it never hurts to watch again as I always pick up different things that I didn’t catch the first time.
If you haven’t seen this movie yet…..you can get it right here!
I remember watching as the thought process was taking place and young Mark Zuckerberg’s creation was evolving. How cool to think of something so immense and culture-changing being created in a college dorm room.
His creative genius and vision are so impressive. Think about it. It was October 2003, when all of this was taking place. Most of us were still using a flip-phone. Even the Blackberry or as we like to call it “crackberry” didn’t become widely used until 2008.
Zuckerberg changed the way we go online. Most of us go to Facebook first then everything else. For better or worse, he is the reason our eyeballs are glued to our screens. We want to stop, but we can’t help ourselves.
In addition, the launch of social media has created tons of opportunities for online jobs and advertising. We even have some of those jobs available right here! There has never been a better time to work from!
What was going on in 2003?
So let’s talk about 2003 for a bit to put this in perspective. That summer brought us enormous entertainment in movies and television. July brought us the first movie in the Pirates franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In August the hit television show, The O.C. (one of my favorites) is launched and has a cult following to this day.
Blockbuster video still existed as did Sam Goody and Circuit City. Are you starting to feel old yet? I know I do. 2003 has a personal component too, because it was also the year my wife and I got married.
I remember those early years browsing the aisles of the local Blockbuster on a Friday evening trying to choose a movie. It makes me sad that those days are gone forever. Even worse, our kids will never know them at all.
Domestic and World Events from 2003
Let’s look at other historical events domestically and from the world for a moment. George W. Bush was President of the United States and signed the third-largest tax cut package in U.S. history. The US and Great Britain invaded Iraq which led to the capture of Saddam Husein.
Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California after the recall of Gray Davis. There was a major crackdown on online music piracy, which led to Apple launching Itunes all in 2003. The do-not-call-list went live and a stamp cost .37 cents while the average cost of gas was $1.83 per gallon.
As you can see so many things were going on in 2003. There is a ton more we could talk about, but for now, we need to move on. It’s always fun to reflect and compare past events of a certain year to today’s culture.
Time for a sequel?
As the date of this writing, it has been nearly ten years since The Social Network was released. Could we be getting closer to a sequel? Do we even need a sequel? I say yes, bring on another movie! These days most movies are made in 3’s anyway so why not give this movie at least two?
So many things have changed since 2010 not only with Facebook but all social media. There is plenty of material to work with. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for 1 billion dollars for example. That alone could give enough material to start one nice screenplay!
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