“DOES ‘THE SOCIAL NETWORK’ HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING?” Part 1

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW!

I don’t write movie reviews, but I do search for what I can learn as a teacher from movies, TV programs, plays, and musicals, and then apply those ideas in the classroom. What message can you glean from the content, dialogue, pacing, events, and characters? I reflected on those aspects of Avatar last spring and wrote about a few walk-away implications for teaching. My bias is to dismiss the negative and contentious and, instead, extract the few nuggets that teach and inspire us to consider those techniques we might not otherwise even think of using.

WHAT’S TSN ALL ABOUT?

This time it’s The Social Network. It’s the story of Mark Zuckerberg and how he founded Facebook. He was transformed from a computer genius, socially maladroit Harvard student and dropout into the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 23. The screenplay is adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires. However, this flick is much more than the drama about relationships and lawsuits surrounding Zuckerberg’s quest to create the largest social networking Website. Reviewer Andy Lowe subtitled it “How to Lose Friends and Influence People.”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH TSN?

Before examining TSN’s implications for teaching, let’s be clear on what Zuckerberg perceives as an egregious error in the movie regarding his motivation to build Facebook. In a video interview by entrepreneur wannabes at Stanford University posted on YouTube in October 2010, Zuckerberg said the film misrepresented his motivation as “wanting to get girls and erect some kind of social institution.” That was dead wrong. He stated that “They [director and writer] just can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things.” Incorrect pronouns aside, Zuckerberg said they instead paid meticulous attention to details such as his wardrobe, “Every single shirt and fleece in the movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.” At least, he wasn’t driven by money.

My next blog will examine TSN’s portrayal of the Net Generation. Stay tuned.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC