Friends for the friendless

With enough conspiracy and treachery to rival Shakespeare at his backstabbing best, David Fincher’s The Social Network has been generating serious Oscar buzz since its release last month. The tale about the origins of Facebook  a casual stalking tool or the greatest social unifier in history  has proven to be a slick one, stuffed with sublime performances by Jesse Eisenberg as founder Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as his then-BFF Eduardo Severin.

I first mentioned The Social Network in this space five months ago (“Getting down with the dorks,” June 5, 2010) and back then, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything remotely amazing from this film. I was finally able to watch it a couple weeks ago  illegally, of course  and aside from the potentially award-winning dialogue, what struck me was how Zuckerberg channeled his unhappiness into an entrepreneurial venture, using technology to get back at an ex or as a way to at least grab her attention. Indeed, revenge is a dish best served cold  and online, as it were. Who knew that the dawn of an Internet revolution would start not in a pristine computer lab, but in an underwhelmingly common Harvard dorm room? And who knew that Brenda Song could play characters other than, like, London Tipton?

Misery as motivation

In “Mark Zuckerberg and Misery as Motivation,” a rather timely blog post for the Harvard Business Review, academic Rosabeth Moss Kanter points out that Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook friending because he was compensating for a lack of buddies.

“Entrepreneurs always have something to prove  the viability of their ideas, for one thing. But are they also, consciously or unconsciously, seeking to prove that they can transcend a personal deficit through their venture?” she writes. “Is inner misery a motivator?”

Kanter then went on to mention Evan Williams, who recently stepped down as Twitter’s chief. A recent New York Times profile suggests the 38-year-old became a Silicon Valley-type and jumped on the instant communication bandwagon as a way to rise above an unhappy Nebraska childhood.

“I had a fierce desire to create things, to be independent and prove myself, which caused me to reject authority, but never in a sort of rebellious way,” Williams was quoted as saying. “It was more like, ‘I’m going to show you by doing it all myself.’”

This theory  that it is dissatisfaction that drives innovation  seems to apply to Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Williams, outcasts-turned-success stories. So is a Twitter movie looming on the horizon? “It’s only a short, but word is they’ve managed to sneak in 140 characters, which is pretty impressive,” states Shortlist columnist Danny Wallace. I wish I thought of this first as it is wildly clever, but I only read it while waiting for the train at London Bridge station.

But back to Facebook. According to the Financial Times, the Queen has also jumped on the bandwagon. “Facebook social networkers will be able to keep up-to-date with the movements of the royal family and its speeches, news, photos and videos on a new official page called The British Monarchy,” reports Mary Watkins. “The site is an official one and neither the Queen nor other members of the royal family are expected to post comments. Royal watchers will also be unable to send friend requests or ‘poke’ the Queen on the new page.”

Paging David Fincher: This would make an epic sequel.

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