The movie claims that Zuckerberg created the primordial version of facebook after getting dumped and subsequently drunk. He stole a bunch of images and created a "hot or not" thing called FaceSmash. This supposedly set him on the path towards creating facebook.
The weakest part of the whole film was at the end when it shows Zuckerberg alone, pitiful, refreshing his facebook page hoping his long lost ex would be his "friend" on facebook. I'm one of those people who feels insulted when filmmakers pull overt, lazy stunts like that.
Sorkin hates the idea of facebook. He thinks the whole idea of a social network is a lie and he may be right. He thinks people who use facebook are wasting their time. I saw that on Colbert I think.
I applaud Sorkin's candor. Not too many people say what they think these days, but I felt like he was insulting the audience with that last scene, saying, essentially, "You people do this too, and you're pitiful." He didn't have to show us what was on Zuckerberg's screen. Most people could have guessed what he was doing without seeing the screen. Sorkin decided to show the screen so people would have no doubts about what was happening. I'm reasonably certain Zuckerberg was not actually doing that during his deposition.
It was called Facemash, and the idea behind it (according to the movie) was that comparisons were more 'turing' than arbitrary scores as used on "hot or not."
The characters' motives as presented in the movie might be fabrication or speculation (depending on your view of the true story) but they still make for a better and more tense story (imho).
Facemash makes more sense I think I was misled by another comment I read, thanks.
To an uneducated observer (that would be me and I cautiously assume most of the girls being compared on Facemash back then) girls were being evaluated on their physical appearance. That is not a noble pursuit.
I completely agree with you about the motives of the characters in the movie being ultimately for the movie. I think a lot of people in this discussion are reading way too much into Sorkin and Zuckerberg.
Anyone who seriously thinks Zuckerberg made facebook because he got dumped by a girl doesn't deserve acknowledgment. It was a mistake for Zuckerberg to even bring this up.
> To an uneducated observer girls were being evaluated on their physical appearance. That is not a noble pursuit.
Yeah, that's right. It was the execution that was referred to as 'Turing' rather than the notion that they were being compared by a metric other than looks. (I'm sorry if I'm being redundant here.)
This is a reference to the Turing test, whereby, an observer holds conversations simultaneously with a human and computer counterpart over a network. The observer must attempt to identify the computer from the two conversations purely from the responses given. So it's the idea of putting two things side-by-side and choosing the more desirable... as opposed to simply assigning a number which is a little more arbitrary.
I suppose on one hand he saw an idea that would become an instant success due to the simplicity of execution.
The weakest part of the whole film was at the end when it shows Zuckerberg alone, pitiful, refreshing his facebook page hoping his long lost ex would be his "friend" on facebook. I'm one of those people who feels insulted when filmmakers pull overt, lazy stunts like that.
Sorkin hates the idea of facebook. He thinks the whole idea of a social network is a lie and he may be right. He thinks people who use facebook are wasting their time. I saw that on Colbert I think.
I applaud Sorkin's candor. Not too many people say what they think these days, but I felt like he was insulting the audience with that last scene, saying, essentially, "You people do this too, and you're pitiful." He didn't have to show us what was on Zuckerberg's screen. Most people could have guessed what he was doing without seeing the screen. Sorkin decided to show the screen so people would have no doubts about what was happening. I'm reasonably certain Zuckerberg was not actually doing that during his deposition.