According to ‘The Social Network,' Facebook is born as a result of rage and fit of revenge by the character Mark Zuckerberg when his long-time girlfriend, Erica Albright ditches him. Zuckerberg returns to his dorm and writes an insulting entry about Albright on his online blog (LiveJournal). This opening act lays the foundation of the social media as being a tool for self-destruction and venting out. In close ties with Sherry Turkle's analysis of the social media, the writer points out that in as much as social media feels like home, it puts one in a public square with a surveillance camera, where members struggle to be accepted and are characterized by cruel wit (The Social Network, 2010). Social media forces the users to live a ‘perfect' life to ‘fit' in and be ‘cool' among their friends.
It is this desire of fitting in and having an upper hand that creates the idea of creating a campus website called Facemash by hacking into college databases to steal photos of female students, then allowing site visitors to rate their attractiveness. As such, Zuckerberg seeks to create online intimacy and empathy for himself by creating a false connection between him and the females whose pictures he has posted on his Facemash. Turkle points out that the nature of social media is to create intimacy and social empathy by escaping solitude and the fear of being alone. Zuckerberg resorts to Facemash as a means of dealing with his hurt instead of taking a moment by himself to reflect on the events that have happened. This falls in line with Turkle's observation. Talking about the benefits of reading hardcopy books versus reading online publications, she observes that, “the book is connected to daydreams and personal associations as readers look within themselves" (Turkle, 2017). Her point is, social media robs an individual the opportunity for self-evaluation, just like it did Zuckerberg.
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References
Fincher, D. (Director). (2010). The Social Network [Motion picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.
Turkle, S. (2017). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other . Hachette UK.
