The movie that I watched was The Social Network, which was directed by David Fincher (2010). The main casts were Jesse Eisenberg (Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook), Rooney Mara (Erica Albright, Mark’s former girlfriend), Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin, Mark’s best friend), Armie Hammer (Cameron Winklevoss, twin brother of Tyler), Josh Pence (Tyler Winklevoss, twin brother of Cameron), Max Minghella (Divya Narendra, business partner of the twin brothers), Brenda Song (Christy Ling), Malese Jow (Alice Cantwell), Douglas Urbanski (Larry Summers, President of Harvard University) and Justin Timberlake (Sean Parker).
It was in 2003 when Mark, a Harvard University undergraduate student began the idea of creating a website (which is now popularly known worldwide as Facebook). As a programming genius and leader in his own special right, it was easy for him to do the coding (Moskovitz, 2010). Oxymoronically, he decided and got inspired to create his own website when her girlfriend Erica broke up with him. While under the influence of a few cans of beer, he made an interactive program of choosing between two girls at a time and rate which of them was the more attractive or “hotter” (The Boy Billionaire, n.d., p. 19). This caused a Harvard University’s computer network to crash because of too much traffic from his Mark’s site.
Initially, the effectiveness of Mark’s group, that is, together with Eduardo, can be gleaned when the latter supplied his algorithm or program to him. Mark then hacked into the university residence halls’ databases, downloaded the names and pictures of female students, and let other Harvard University students ranked the girls accordingly. Thus, the initial “official launching” of FaceMash.com – until such time that it came to be known as the Facebook. Because of what Mark did, he was given academic probation for half a year and some female students at the university started to rail him bitterly. However, there was no mentioned that his friend Eduardo was punished, too, considering that he only gave his code to Mark.
When Cameron and Tyler have known of the incidence, such that Mark was drunk when he created his website in just one night, they hired him to be their programmer of their Harvard Connection website. Mark committed to the twin brothers, and afterwards, he talked to Eduardo about his online social networking website called “Thefacebook,” which was initially for the students of Harvard University. Upon learning of the details of Mark’s start up project, Eduardo invested $1,000. It quickly became popular when the link was distributed among the student body. The Winklevoss brothers and Narendra learned about Thefacebook and claimed that their programmer Mark stole the idea from them. Despite Cameron and Divya’s decision to sue Mark in court for theft of their idea, Tyler reminded them that it was not how “Harvard’s gentlemen” deal with such an issue. I think that at this part of the movie, Mark have already an inkling that such would be the case and he simply continued with his plans as an outstanding strategist.
Later, Mark and Eduardo met someone named Brenda, a fellow student at the university, and her buddy Malese. After going to the bar and having some good times together, the group later on decided to advance their plans by catering more and more students from other universities. As a result, Facebook grew more in popularity and the Winklevoss and their partner Divya decided to meet with Douglas, President of Harvard University, but advised them that their accusation bore no merit either in view of the university’s code of conduct or as a court case. Mark simply stated that he did not use any of the Winklevoss’ code in creating his site. In this part of the movie, Mark knew precisely what he was doing when deciding over his course of actions or supposed group. However, much is yet to be divulged later about Mark and a few of his closed group members (e.g., friend Eduardo) whom he fired from his company.
When Mark decided to move his company to Palo Alto in California, it was due to Parker’s suggestions. During this period, Eduardo was busy seeking advertisers’ support in New York. However, Mark did not agree at the start with Eduardo’s decision an action because Mark thought that such moves would only affect the website’s popularity as a free social networking site. Days later, when Eduardo went to Mark’s office, he found out that Parker had made critical decisions for Facebook (that is, without consulting him as co-founder of the site). Eduardo confronted Mark and they have some dispute the reason why Eduardo, as the Chief Financial Officer, decided to freeze the source of funding for their website. When Mark had known of Eduardo’s action of freezing the bank account, he angrily called up. Mark then voiced out to Eduardo that the company already has a new investor, that is, from one of Parker’s contacts. This event happened when Eduardo was having contention with her girlfriend Christy out of personal matter (that is, jealousy), which only resulted to their subsequent break up. At this part of the movie, I assume that Mark has foreseen in advance how one of his closed group member of friend Eduardo would react over the matter of having another business investor. From here onwards, there has been controversy and conflict as to the site’s founding, funding source, and so on.
As stated above, because the Winklevoss’ brothers claimed that Mark stole their code, while they were competing in a rowing competition in England, they learned that Facebook has expanded even more. Outraged by that fact, they finally decided to file a lawsuit against Mark and his group. In the same manner, when Eduardo found out that his share became less than one percent from the original one-third return of his investment, while all the other members of the Mark’s company maintained their original percentages, he informed Mark that he would sue him. Coincidentally or intentionally, while Parker was celebrating Facebook’s one million memberships with his intern, they were raided by the police because of possession of cocaine. Because of that, Parker and his interns were arrested and fired by Mark from his company. According to some testimonies, Mark planned it all. He seems to be a manipulative leader who can maneuver his way to farther success. For me, Mark worked it all up for Facebook to attain such successes. He can handle controversies and conflict tactfully because of his genius. He knew how his own creativity will make him successful by collaborating with individuals whom he can really trust. At the latter part of the movie, Mark’s defense lawyer made settlements with Eduardo and the Winklevoss’ brothers. It was also shown when he sent a friend’s request on Facebook to Erica, his former girlfriend, but no confirmation from her.
I think that based on the summary statements that I provided above about the movie The Social Network, the group handled controversy and conflict in unexpected way, except for Mark. Mark seems to know where his actions will lead him. He knows to whom he can confide his plans and get what he wanted. For instance, because he needed money ($1,000) for his website, he approached Eduardo, his best friend. When the Winklevoss have known of his programming adroitness, he simply accepted their offer because, for me, he will learn about their plans. Mark knows how to make his way through so that there is no impediment to his forwardness. Moreover, Mark is an insightful leader because he knows whom he has to ask for support and who to dispose when the needs arise. When controversy and conflict arose, he simply stood for what he knew was the best way to do. In terms of the role of creativity in the overall group process, Mark monopolized it all because it has not been evident in the film that “[d]iverse membership [] enhances creativity” – except perhaps that the movie focused much on Mark’s ingenuity (Rothwell, 2012, p. 293). He is simply good at it.
References
Moskovitz, D. (2010, July 17). What does Dustin Moskovitz think of The Social Network? Retrieved from Quora is your best source for knowledge: http://www.quora.com/What-does-Dustin-Moskovitz-think-of-The-Social-Network
Rothwell, J. D. (2012). In Mixed Company: Communication in Small Groups: Communicating in Small Groups and Teams (Eight ed.). California: Thomson Wadsworth.
Rudin, S., Brunetti, D., De Luca, M., and Chaffin, C. (Producers), and Fincher, D. (Director). (2010). The Social Network [Motion Picture]. USA: Columbia Pictures.
The Boy Billionaire. (n.d.). Illinois: Agate Publishing.
