Thursday, March 10, 2011
"The Social Network"
http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/
Hey--a million dollars isn't cool...you know what's cool? A billion dollars!Hope you like the film--we'll finish it up Tuesday--the link above is to the official website for "The Social Network"--check it out...bring your notes for the quiz! Think about these aspects of the film...what are the key ethical questions raised in the partially true story? What's the irony in a friendless, techy-geek-social outcast developing the biggest social network in the world? Whose your favorite character? Does the film inform the audience or persuade them? What is the film saying about money? What is it saying about values? What is it saying about friendship? What does it say about college? In our book, chapter 23 on informative speaking talks about the analogy as a great way to establish common ground for understanding: Audiences can grasp new ideas best when they have something they already know to relate them to (163). The team sport of Crew at Harvard is used as a kind of analogy in the film--what is it being compared to? Is it effective? Is Facebook good or bad? Helpful or dangerous? Inquiring minds want to know!
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Jesse Saeteurn
ReplyDeleteBasically it is trying to make connection with everyone in the U.S. and other places out of the U.S. by connecting into one website which is facebook.com. Those who are smarter in tech stuff are the ones who achieve better in what they do and can invent stuff that is better to help everyone also they like to challenge other techno people who think they can do better. Eduardo Saverin was my favorite character because he help with paying and getting facebook on its feet and expanding it. To me I think it is to inform audience about how facebook was made and the issue that they went through. The money plays a major part in making facebook to stay alive and to keep it running. Between Mark and Eduardo, it look like their friendship was tearing apart. For facebook, it means that people can connect to others at different places and knowing them can create friendship and make things work better like creating diversity amongst others. College is want gave the ideas and knowledge in being able to invent something new that can benefit people or create a whole new level of themselves in making a career. With the Crew at Harvard, it was comparing with the idea of teamwork so that working together can accomplish much more grounds and not being the best individually. Working by yourself you won't accomplish as much instead get lost or frustrated. In a way, it is effective because seeing teamwork can make things work out. Somewhat I think facebook is both good and bad because something may occur like gossiping on facebook can spread and violence breaks out, but the good is that you can connect with other families from long distance and friends too to see how they are doing. It just depends on how it is use because it can be dangerous at times when rumors of someone or telling joke that hurts another person or it can be helpful when situation needs to be solve like homework assistance or questions about life.
Lisette Settle
ReplyDelete1. The key ethical questions raised in the film are:
-Is the potential success of an idea worth the loss of an only friendship?
-Do social networking sites strengthen or weaken communication with people?
2. The irony in a friendless geek-social outcast developing the biggest social network in the world is that although he has the inability to make friends in the real world, he somehow manages to befriend millions of people from around the world, that he has never met through an internet website he created.
3. My favorite character in the movie was Eduardo because I felt that he was responsible and tried to be a good friend. I have nothing against his personality, despite the fact that he cannibalized a chicken.
4. The film informs the audience about the creation of Facebook.
5. The film says that money changes people. For example, Mark and Eduardo were good friends before the creation of Facebook, but when Mark began thinking about the profit that could be made from his creation, he turned on his business partner and his only friend.
4. The movie says to cherish true gifts like friendship, not money.
5. Do not let material possessions such as money come between a friendship.
6. The movie says that college is challenging because you are pressured to communicate with others though you may not be good at it. For example, sharing dorms with strangers, joining clubs, sports, making speeches, group assignments, etc...
7. The team sport of Crew was being compared to teamwork. For example, the sport demands that each player work together to get passed the finish line first. Even just one person being unfocussed could lead to devastation for the entire team. That is essentially what happened to the Winklvoses when their team lost. The two of them had been preoccupied with thoughts of Mark "stealing" their idea and were not completely focussed on their game.
8. The team sport of Crew is an effective analogy because it emphasizes how just one person can ruin it for the entire team if they are not focused or if they do not work just as hard as everyone else.
9. I believe that Facebook is good because it provides another form of quick communication with someone you know if you are somehow unable to meet them face to face. However, I do believe that Facebook is good in moderation. Which means that I believe that it is okay to check your Facebook if you have some free time. On the other hand, I do not believe that it is healthy to go on Facebook all the time like during classes or driving (illegal) or staying on for hours on end.
Kimberly Coover
ReplyDeleteCom 300
Some ethical questions that were raised was stealing, exploiting people, and taking away who gets and deserves credit. He is smart enough to create a great social network. My favorite character is Edwardo because he is smart and stays logical and doesn't get stuck behind the coolness factor. The film informs about Facebook. Money makes everything happen and that is what people truly care about and want. The film stays true to certain strong values and keeps the people on their own paths. Whether good or bad. The film says that friends will turn their backs when fame or success is the other option. It symbolizes college as one big party for everyone. The analogy to the crew team is showing that the race is always going. Just like the twin boys lost their Olympic race they lost their idea of Facebook. It was a constant race to see who would come out as the winner.
The key ethics for the movie is about backstabbing and breaking partnerships. Big ideas come with big costs, but overall it will have a big income. The irony is that he doesn’t really have any friends in the real world, and the one that he did have is suing the company. I believe the film is informing the audience about the story behind the network. My favorite character in the movie has to be the crazy girlfriend because she was hilarious. Money basically runs the world and everyone is after it. No matter how young or old a person maybe, money is what gives them power. The movie shows the values can be killed by a person just like a friendship. In college, crazy things can happen and you might think someone is your best friend, but the next minute they are out to sue you for stealing an idea. The crew at Harvard is that everyone works at a team and not by themselves. It is true that by working by yourself for something like facebook will not happen, but instead end into pieces. Facebook is good and bad actually. It might be helpful to stay in contact with family and friends around the world, but at the same time some people get divorced or lose their job because of it. People really need to be careful with what they post up on the internet because it can come and hunt them back at any moment.
ReplyDeleteSabeena Ghani
This movie brings up a lot of ethical questions. Like is money or fame worth losing people? My favorite characters are the crazy girlfriend and Edwardo. The girlfriend because she keeps it real and Edwardo because he stays true to himself. The crew at Harvard is all about teamwork. The movie's purpose is to inform us about Facebook. I agree with Sabeena in a way, Facebook is good because it allows us to stay connected with old friends. I have been able to stay connected with people form elementary school through Facebook, but it could also be bad. I don't agree that Facebook causes divorce but I do believe that if you allow it to, it can be harmful. It connects you with old friends but it can disconnect you with your current ones. A lot of people accept people they don't even know online just to add to their friends list but they have no idea who those people are. If the saying, "tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are" is true, a lot of us wouldn't know who we are. Just like people use Facebook to be friends with people, rapist, killers and perverts use it to find their next victims. Becareful who you accept as a friend because you might regret it later...
ReplyDelete-Natalie Medina
The ethical questions that are raised in the partially true store are taking someone's ideas and evolving around it, exploiting people around the world, befriending a partnership and money. The irony of the friendship that the two had was that he didn't really have any friends in the real world and the only one he relied on was the one who was suing Mark for Facebook. My favorite character was Eduardo because he was always loyal to his friend by giving him money without questioning him for it and too expand the website. I feel like the film informed us to understand what the website, Facebook.com, had to go through to make it happen. It says about values that money can tear a friendship apart and don't always trust people just because they've had more experience than you. For Facebook, it gives people the ability to connect with other people with just a click of a button. What it says about college is that crazy things happen and competition can get the best out of you. The team sport crew was compared to leadership in a teamwork way. The team sport crew was an analogy in a teamwork effort because when one person doesn't give it their all, they all crumble. I think Facebook is both a good and bad thing. It is good to help people interact in a different way. It is also very helpful. It can be bad by conflict. For example, Eduardo didn't change his relationship and his girlfriend was furious about it. Unnecessary drama can occur with using this site.
ReplyDelete- Mary Tacotaco
The irony of this film is that Mark is known for demolishing any and all friendships/ relationships he has made, yet his whole facebook idea is to establish some sort of pseudo comradeship between people from around the world by simply requesting to be their friend online. I like Mark the most out of anyone else in this film because he is quick witted and has a unique perspective on the way people perceive him. This film emphasizes friendship and loyalty and it goes as far as to mesh the ethics of friends with business ethics. This film was intended to inform the audience as well as convince them that it is considerably unwise to mix friends and business. Along the way people felt betrayed by Mark and in turn sued him for money or recognition on the creation of facebook. Where Mark got it right was when he took no offense to his former pals efforts of robbing him of every penny facebook was worth. He knew that it was purely business while the others let pride get a hold of them and sue for emotional reasons. Which brings up the analogy of the Team Crew. In teams they emphasize that everyone wins together and everyone loses together. The facebook "team" did indeed share this mentality, except for the captain Mark. While the other people did less work than Mark, they believed they deserved as much recognition both monetary speaking and publicity wise. This is where the idea of being a team and acting like one is unwise in a business setting. In the end each and every one of them was out for themselves and it showed as the movie progressed. The movie explained the concept of money as an emotional commodity. They constantly compared how much money each person deserved based on their relationship with Mark, rather than the effort and unique contributions they made. I think that the creation of facebook was a wise one. The intention to be exclusive was alluring and unique. Now as the years have passed, anyone can have a facebook and the original intentions are being sacrificed and it is damaging to facebooks former reputaion.
ReplyDelete-Mackenzie Rossi
Most of the ethical questions occur during the "trials" of "Mark Zuckerberg". But one particular ethical issue that struck me was the fact that one of the roommate trio was, at first, reluctant to sue "Mark Zuckerberg" because he felt that they were "Harvard gentlemen".
ReplyDeleteThe irony is there because of "Mark" being someone with few friends, but it's not all too surprising, because human nature just strives to get what they are missing. In this case, he was missing friends.
My favorite character, in here, is Jesse Eisenberg. He played "Mark Zuckerberg". He's the central character upon which the whole story is built. Without him, the movie would not have been the same.
It all depends on how a viewer took in this movie--whether it was to inform or persuade. I only saw it as a means to inform about the creation of Facebook.
Throughout the movie, some of the characters focused on money and not values, while others did the complete opposite. That caused drama among their relationships. So, the movie said that there is no greater entity. Money and values are not greater than one another. Like everything in life, they must be balanced to succeed. The creation of Facebook wasn't because of any one person. Even though "Mark" did most of the work, he had to have the help of the other people around him in order to create the website.
The movie is reminding the viewers to carefully select the friends in college.
The Crew Team at Harvard is compared to mob mentality. Within any group, there are those who will oppose the group's consensus. It is quite effective.
Facebook is good and helpful because it connects people from all corners of the world. It is dangerous when people get "addicted" to it. No addiction is healthy.
I love this movie! I saw it in theaters and I didn't know what to expect, but I was totally impressed by the story, acting and message. The ethical questions that arise while watching are to what drives people to do the things they do? is fame, fortune and success worth sacrificing friendships and loyalty? does success and fortunes cloud one's moral compass? I had no idea what kind of person Mark Zuckerberg was and after watching the film I couldn't believe THIS was the person that created the "great" Facebook. I though it was totally ironic because someone who was a loner/geek created the greatest social networking site. I feel that the film informs us of all aspects of the different sides of the story and lets us draw our own conclusions. For me my favorite character is Eduardo because he was portrayed as the most real and genuine character and he's hot! I think Facebook is definitely a good way to keep in touch with friends and family but it can also be a distraction. It all depends how you use it!
ReplyDeleteKar'Lei Tan
The ethical questions raised in the partially true story are that: are money and fame more important than trust and friendship; can people take someone else’s idea and twist and change it and use it as their own…etc. The irony in this movie is that Mark Zuckerberg, a person who is pretty self-centered, inconsiderate, and a little anti-social, created the world’s biggest and most successful social network for people to communicate with friends and families all over the world. My favorite character in the movie is Eduardo Saverin because I think that he thinks logically and clearly. He understood what should be done to be successful and he wasn’t blind by all of the “glamour” in California. The film informs the audience about how the “facebook conflict” might have happened. The film portrays money in multiple ways but mainly money is seen as something that can do anything and that without money, everything might just fall apart. It is one of the twins value of being the “Harvard gentlemen” that held him back from suing Mark at the beginning. Even though Eduardo had frozen the bank account and tried to sue Mark, I feel like they were still kind of looking out for each other, trying to protect each other. The film showed college as a place for people to meet one another and to come up with new ideas. The team sport of Crew at Harvard is used to compare with competition of the intellectual creations and teamwork. People had to work together to win. If the members of the team don’t cooperate, the team would lose and they will fall apart. I think it is effective. Facebook is a great way for people to keep in touch or to communicate. It can be both helpful and dangerous depending on how it is used.
ReplyDelete-Annie Leung :)
The irony in a friendless, techy-geek-social outcast developing the biggest network in the world is that being a social outcast, he was able to create millions of friends around the world. My favorite character in this movie is Jesse Eisenberg who played the role of "Mark Zuckerberg". I'd term this movie informative because I was able to understand the idea behind the creation of facebook as a means of communication. From my point of view, I believe the movie talks about money in the sense that you abandon values, social etiquettes and friendships just to become rich and famous. I believe facebook is good and helpful in the sense that, it's been able to connect a lot of people from all around the world especially friends and loved ones who might have lost contact with. In the same way, facebook is bad and dangerous. I believe facebook is turning out to be the new craigslist. One of the requirements to owning a facebook account used to be to have a college's email account to enable verification that you're an authenticated user but now, every Tom, Dick and Harry can own as much facebook accounts as they wish, thereby, exposing its diligent users to potential danger.
ReplyDeleteThis film makes a lot of statements about society and, specifically, the college lifestyle. The twins start out with the desire to create a website that is made for just harvard students. That way girls can see that they attend harvard and will, in turn, want to have sex with them. In fact, the entire basis of having the "college experience" online seems to be about sex. Millions of people log on to find out if the person they like is single or taken or looking etc. And it works. We know facebook is now so mainstream everyone has one. It has changed the way we interact with people. The way, perhaps, we publicly address others.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character was probably the character of Mark Zuckerberg. Because his distance from what might be considered "normal" social interactions allowed him to observe from an outside perspective and create this social internet site that changed so many things and made him a very rich man.
-Drew Kruschel
I liked this film because it explores a very important question which is ,Is making money worth potentially sacrificing the relationships that you have formed previously ? It is important to stay grounded in the whole process because there will be people there who are not your real friends and just want you for the money so this movie showcases the different effects that doing this can have on your relationships. the crew team in the movie represents the whole concept of working together as a team to achieve a goal which is like the team that helped to create Facebook and keep it running. Money is very powerful and the film explores everything that can come along with the dangers.
ReplyDelete-Jaelyn Archie
Abra Rattanasamay
ReplyDeleteThe Key ethical questions raised was one the ownership of facebook, is it alright for people to take ones idea or the one who puts in the work the owner of the item like facebook. The irony from the friendless techy geek is pretty much that when someone gains money or invents something cool you somehow have tons of friends out of nowhere. My favorite character is mark because he is insane and can make comeback like a crazy man. The film was informing the audience about facebook and how it came. It shows how money can change people into your friends and enemies. Values are completely nothing compared to money who really cares about it. Friendship is pretty much money brings friends, but you don’t know if they are your true friends. College is a place of freedom among students and not with the school. The Team sport crew is being compared to teamwork. It is important to everyone works together to achieve a common goal, which is victory among Harvard students. Facebook is good and bad depending on the person who is using it. It allows people to connect to one another and make friends or girlfriends online. Bad in the way it does everything but your not actually there in person speaking with the person so it’s a modern way of connecting not accepted by many.
The key ethical question is that does money and success make you lose you friendship? The friendless, techy-geek is trying to make his success by making facebook, and letting college campuses know that there is a social network for college students and that everyone could be friends. My favorite character is Mark because he is a smart and a intelligent young man who made his success of creating a social network for college students, and will strive for anything that helps him succeed. This movie is to presuade students that they can do anything that makes them happy and successful. Money is an important factor because money makes you successful even though you can lose friends. The values is worth a lot. Friendships is very important because everyone wants a trusted friend. College is very important because it brings success to a person. The team sport crew is being compared to working as a team and being able to communicate well with eachother. Facebook is a good and a bad thing because it helps you connect with far friends and family, yet people can talk harsh words to another person. It is a helpful website because it's a friends page for everyone to communicate with eachother and keep in touch with people we want to keep in touch with. Overrall, facebook is a great social network site.
ReplyDeleteCheng Saephan
i wasnt there last class and missed the film. poor me :(
ReplyDeleteRaymond Cardoza
I believe the ethics in this movie are based on backstabbing as well and focus. The movie is based on a group of computer techs building a social network while one is in charge. Techy geeks are smart and can out smart a lot of people. My favorite character was Justin timberlake because he had nothing to do with the site and hustled his way in to get rich. I think this movie is both persuasive in trying to get people to see the true side of facebook and informative by showing how money can change things. Always pay attention to what you are signing for because you never know who's your true friend. I don't use facebook so I don't known if it's good or not.
ReplyDeleteYonas mesmer