It’s hard to fully express in one article how I feel about The Social Network, David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s 2010 blockbuster hit about the founding ofFacebook. That’s partly because I haven’t seen it in a long time, but it’s also because the main subject of the biographical drama has become an even more contentious figure in the 15 years since the film hit cinemas.
It’s still widely considered to be one of the best films of the 21st century, but perhaps more culturally significant, its less than flattering depiction of Mark Zuckerberg, now one of the most important and controversial billionaires in the world, helped to cultivate a fascination with the Meta CEO’s intellectual capacity and his abrasive, cold personality. Its sequel, though, might end up being even more important in shaping contemporary perceptions of Zuckerberg.
Aaron Sorkin’s Take On Mark Zuckerberg Will Feel Very Different
According to Deadline, Aaron Sorkin will be writing and directing The Social Network 2, which “explores the story behind the Wall Street Journal‘s The Facebook Files by Jeff Horowitz, an explosive series of articles published in October 2021 that exposed the inner workings of — and multiple harms caused by — the world’s largest social network.” This means that The Social Network 2 will focus on the 2020 election, but also touch on its effect on “teens, preteens, violence, and countries outside the U.S.”
The Facebook Filesis a series of articles that review leaked documents from a Meta whistleblower that demonstrate the company’s complicity in enabling multiple forms of severe harm against its users.
Sorkin’s attitude towards Zuckerberg seems to have soured significantly, if it was ever positive at all. Ina 2024 episode of The Town with Matthew Bellonititled Aaron Sorkin, Live From D.C., he said plainly, “I blame Facebook for January 6”, referencing the 2021 attack on the United States Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. He continued, “Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible, because that is what will increase engagement, that is what will get you to, what they call inside the hallways of Facebook, the infinite scroll.”
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The Consequences of Meta’s Work Needs To Be Understood By The Mainstream
Some of the discourse around The Social Network when it was first released focused on the ethics of making a biographical drama about a person who was still alive and very much influential. It helped to shape the perception of not just Zuckerberg, but tech CEOs and entrepreneurs more widely, since it to some extent glamourised the scrappy rise of the now incredibly powerful tech company.
But Zuckerberg is a living subject, and some credit him as now being one of the main drivers of whatsome political voices consider to be a movement towards technofascism. Tech CEOs are no longer just wealthy subjects of biopics, they’re present at Donald Trump’s inauguration,ending DEI programs, andtalking about “masculine energy” on Joe Rogan’s podcast. In some ways, the film turned out to be eerily prescient. Perhaps we should have seen this coming from Jesse Eisenberg’s astute portrayal of Zuckerberg as an angry, lonely man who had something to prove and always thought he was the smartest in the room.
I don’t always love Sorkin’s work, but right now, The Social Network 2 could be what we need. If The Social Network helped reframe our understanding of Mark Zuckerberg and his legacy once, perhaps the sequel can do it again, helping mainstream audiences fully come to grips with the dire consequences of letting Silicon Valley’s leaders gain too much power through their wealth. It’s easy to chalk these frightening times up to a whole mess of factors, because itisa mess, but social media and Meta’s shaping of it might be one of the most important of them all.
