The Social Network - A film that made me miss the era before social media.

You could say I'm a little late to watching this movie. If you had asked me when this came out a couple of days ago I might have said 2015 or maybe a year before. When I looked at the release date on Prime to see 2010 I had that "wait that cannot be right even though you know it is" feeling. This film is eleven years old and the reason for me thinking it was more recent is perhaps the way social media has blown up over the last five or so years. Watching this film made me remember back to the time I thought it came out, believe it or not but in 2014/15 everyone you met wasn't obsessed with becoming a YouTuber or influencer. Come to think of it I don't think those terms had even been coined at the time, social media was definitely on the rise and quickly but it wasn't as ubiquitous as it is now. Twitter for instance was still that thing that's "never going to be as big as Facebook" because it's just the status part of Facebook.  

The film is set in the early 2000s, a period I remember very well and the films release date made me think back to my time at university. It sounds very weird to talk about a time only 10 years ago and have it feel so alien and unlike anything that resembles the present day. In 2010 I could count the amount of people I knew that had smart phones on one hand, Blackberry's were all the rage, wireless headphones were rubbish and Wi-Fi never worked, anywhere, ever. I have spoken in very small parts here and there about my life during this time and that it was very rough to say the least, but while watching this film and thinking back to everything else during that period it made me very nostalgic. A time where people talked about what they're doing, instead of just scrolling through feeds on their phone or tablet on auto-pilot pretending to be interested in people they hardly know, posting about things that they're not doing or thinking of doing. 

Now if anyone reading this has always grown up with social media always being around I am well aware this might read like someone who just seems out of touch or wishing to turn the clock back but that is not the case. It's more just a reflection of how much things have changed during a relatively short amount of time. Think for a moment about where things will be in another 15-20 years; history pretty much guarantees that by the time you're in your thirties you won't be doing the same thing either. Things will have moved on and you'll realise the world you grew up in is not the on you're currently living in. Whatever age your own cutoff is for a term like youngster is, they're definitely not going to have grown up with the same things you have. Think for a moment about how capable VR is now to even 5 years from now for an easy example. 

I know very little about how much of the film is true in terms of the lawsuits, origins of the idea and creation of the now well know Facebook page structure. However if you take away the Facebook angle of the movie I think it serves as a strong showcase for just how easily money and maybe, especially nowadays, someones desire to be notorious by almost any means necessary can corrupt a person. This is true now more than it ever dared dreamed to be during the time this film was made. The platforms for pouring eggs over yourself didn't even exist back then, if that example is lost on you then feel free to look it up, just don't do so while at work. 

I would say that the film is going to age very well but I think the fact I watched it now and enjoyed it so much makes it almost pointless to point that out. Having lived through the colossal boom that is social media definitely gives you a very unique perspective though. If I had watched this 11 years ago I doubt it would have had the same impact because the general life experience wasn't there then. When this film came out Facebook was big, there's no doubt about it but it was for many, the one thing or way to post about your life online. Now you have Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch and loads of others that I know even less about. Consider for a moment that OnlyFans exists and has the kind of mainstream recognition that it has, especially in post Covid pandemic world and think for a while how all these platforms are going to change and some will inevitably go away over the next couple of decades. What will the term "social media" mean in another 10 or 20 years? When this film came out that term meant Facebook and at a push and it's a big push you could include YouTube in there but that really was about it. 

In short I suppose this film made me realise just how different things were during the time it is set, which in the grand scheme of things is a very recent. Even writing this blog over the past few weeks makes me think back to when having a blog was how people posted about stuff online, before any videos or even pictures the written word was what people sought out. You could tell very easily whether someone had actually read something whereas now in the era of what I'd call headline intelligence; all you have to do is read a handful of words to appear knowledgeable because that's what the majority are doing in all facets of social media these days. It does feel more and more like the apparent consumption of something, whether it be the latest TV series or natural disaster is far more important than actually taking the time to take it in and really think about it. The phrase surface over substance is one that's always been around but right now it feels like it's the heart of just about anything posted on the internet. The title for this blog for instance would make a very fitting Tweet, where people would no doubt hit like, or retweet and have an imaginary discussion on what it is I meant by it. The need for the following 1,000 words isn't there anymore because nobody has the time to stop their apparent consumption to actually absorb the finer details. 

Anyway, thanks for reading and social media interest aside, The Social Network is a very good film that's definitely worth watching.

Peace. 

JTB.