After watching the movie the “Social Network” in this week’s class, I was very intrigued to understand the lives of the college students who were involved in Facebook’s inception. I tracked down a class of ‘04 student who gave me his perspective of campus life during one of the most revolutionary times for social networking. In order to preserve his identify, I simply refer to him as the “Harvard Gentlemen” through the interview.

Q: Did you use or know/hear of Facemash?

A: “Don’t remember, I remember hot or not.”

 

Q: When did you join Facebook?

A: “December 2004”

 

Q: How did you hear about this new site?

A: “Word of mouth on campus, we had hard copy physical freshman Facebook that we thought evolved into this.”

Q: What attracted you to the site?

A: “Ability to check out hot girls on campus.”

 

Q: Did you know Mark Zuckerberg or the twins?

A: “I Knew of mark and knew the twins on a casual basis.”

Q: What was Zuckerberg’s reputation like on campus?

A: “Smart computer programmer, I wasn’t close enough to know his reputation intimately.

Q: What was the twins’ reputation like?

A: “Over privileged brothers who were on the crew team.”

Q: Did everyone know that the twins were promoting a similar website at the time?

A: “Somewhat, they knew of connect U it was during the embryonic stages of the social media craze with MySpace.”

Q: Do you think there is truth to the claims that Zuckerberg stole the twins’ idea?

A: “Well yes and no. It seems like there was no evidence to prove the deal was in writing or legally protected. Intellectual ownership of an idea does not apply when social networking websites are already in place. It’s whoever gets to the market fastest and with the best product that gets the best return. And that’s what Zuckerberg did.”

Q: Did you watch the “Social Network”? If so, what did you think?

A: “It was somewhat accurate I believe, although Hollywood took the liberty of glorifying campus life: finals clubs, girls etc.”

Q: Did you think Facebook would take off like it did?

A: “I thought it would grow but didn’t think it would be a globally phenomenon. I would have sold much earlier on.”

Q: Why do you think it took off like it did?

A: “People want to constantly interact in today’s society, it’s another medium to do that, its also another place to market yourself to others for relationships, business, etc.

Q: Was the misogyny prominent in the movie common place on campus and in finals clubs?

A: “Eh not in my experience but finals clubs were more a place to meet women and invite them to private parties than anything else.”

 

The Harvard Gentlemen’s account is very interesting when compared with the Hollywood fantastical version. In my opinion the reputation of the twin’s seems to translate well throughout the movie as most of the audience has very little sympathy for them. Also, the Harvard Gentlemen refers to the fact that he did not know Zuckerberg really at all, which also well portrayed in the movie, as the character seemed very isolated and introverted. However, as for misogyny on campus, it seems to deviate from reality on campus. Thus, reflecting solely on the tech world and the environment in both Silicon Valley and silicon alley. For the most part it seems the partying depicted throughout is not only used to glorify the life of a programmer, but also juxtaposes the age and immaturity of Zuckerberg that belies his technological brilliance and ingenuity.