Last weekend I went out and saw Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, a follow up to 2010’s massively successful The Social Network featuring Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerburg and the story around the origination of Facebook. Regardless of one’s position on Zuckerburg himself, it’s hard to argue with the man’s intelligence and success in launching one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.
From a pure entertainment value, I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie and enjoy most of Sorkin’s work, dating back to The West Wing in the early 2000’s. His dialogue is peppy and I find his storytelling abilities fascinating. Going into Reckoning, I was expecting the same from him. And while the storytelling was good and I was entertained, this movie lacked some of the charm and energy that captivated me in the first one. Frankly, it was pretty dark. But this piece is not a movie review. What I really want to talk about are the larger implications of Reckoning’s story.
While entertained by the movie, I also walked out angry. Without spoiling the movie for those who have not seen it, the movie centers on the years 2019, 2020, and 2021 leading up to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot in Washington DC. It’s about an internal Facebook whistleblower who secretly works with a Wall Street Journal reporter about the algorithms of Facebook, and how the algorithms are intentionally designed to increase social media engagement (and thus, profit for Facebook) via hate, division and anger. Just name the topic and the FB algorithm will somehow get you worked up about it. Guaranteed.
Why was I so angry after the movie? Was I not aware of the algorithms in place already? Of course I was. But it was a reminder to me and sort of an “aha” moment that all the anger and anxiety I typically feel after a ten-minute scroll on Facebook (or Instagram) is by design. My anger is exactly what Zuckerburg wants and in full disclosure, sometimes that ten-minute doom scroll easily turns to twenty minutes because I just HAVE to see the next thing that’s going to piss me off. And unfortunately, the heartwarming pictures of my friends’ kids going to Homecoming, or the celebrating big birthdays, or the cool pictures of airplanes, do little proportionately to melt away my anger.
And there’s the juxtaposition! To this very minute, I have not been able to find the right balance between wanting NOTHING to do with any social media, to being fearful of losing connection (albeit electronic/virtual). Walking out of the movie, I thought of writing some grandiose and self-righteous post on FB about how I was no longer going to be a pawn in the social media game and that I was permanently deleting the app. NEWSFLASH – you can still “friend” me on FB or Instagram right now. What keeps it alive is the good of social media, to which there is still plenty. It’s the connection to long-time friends, the connection to friends I maybe have not talked to in 30 years, and it’s the FOMO of what is going on in the lives of my connections that keeps the apps alive on my phone. I think those aspects are worthwhile and worthy of further consideration.
But I’ll be honest – I’m closer than I think I’ve ever been to some sort of a social media adjustment; whether its committing to changing my scrolling patterns by limiting my time on the apps or proactively looking to change my algorithms (puppy dogs and ice cream sound pretty good right now – thanks Vince Vaughn!). Or both. Less scrolling combined with better scrolling. And the beauty of it all is that it comes down to a choice; my choice. Cake batter ice cream, please!
Be well, men.
Jason