The most indelible image of Mark Zuckerberg isn’t of him wearing “pervert glasses.” It’s of the fictional Mark that closes “The Social Network,” the 2010 drama about the fraught creation of Facebook. By that point, Mark has turned friends into enemies, strangers into friends and is about to become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. Now, alone with a laptop, he sends a “friend” request to an ex who doesn’t respond. So he hits refresh on his Facebook page again and again, a perfect poor little rich boy moment that suggests all that he’s lost.
“The Social Network” won high praise and some Oscars, including one for its writer, Aaron Sorkin, who has kept busy since, working in movies, TV and the theater. Things turned out pretty well for Zuckerberg, too, whose dorm-room start-up grew into a social-media behemoth with an estimated 3 billion users. Amid defending Facebook’s influence, including on children and elections, and issuing public apologies for the company, Zuckerberg got married (take that, fictional ex-girlfriend!) and had kids. He also changed Facebook’s name to Meta and became a billionaire many times over, with an estimated net worth of around $250 billion. He has even visited the White House to meet with President Trump.
Sorkin is back on the Zuckerberg beat with his hopefully titled new movie, “The Social Reckoning,” now as both writer and director. This time the focus isn’t on beginnings, friendships or even Zuckerberg, but about how social-media platforms like Facebook have rewired our brains, endangering both bodies and the American body politic. A fictional Mark (an eerie Jeremy Strong) still looms, but largely as an avatar. The characters pumping blood into this sequel are Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a real Facebook employee turned whistle-blower, and Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), The Wall Street Journal reporter whose 2021 investigative series brought to light Haugen’s revelations that the company chose “profit over safety” and was aware of the harms it was causing.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing