The facebook effect
* I realized the post has nothing much about the book. hence reposting with an adage.
Pre script : The post is about the book by David Kirkpatrick.
I am a skeptic. It helps me getting my views/opinions about stuff straight. And I have always been a skeptic of social networking. It comes from personal experience. I am a decently social person. Not for the parties I indulge in or the page 3 (or 6 is it ?) person that I am, but because I like meeting new people and new experiences. So when I was in the US and still regularly in touch with most of my family and friends back home, I started facebooking. Rather I got introduced to it a new way there. I was on facebook, orkut, twitter, blogger, linkedin. LinkedIn was the only one I ever took seriously for obvious reasons. Then I read The Lost Symbol and the whole concept of twitter and collective thinking and action started making sense. Twitter soon replaced newspapers and tv for me. It is so non intrusive, simple and some concepts are so novel that I was hooked. Blogger became more and more personal as I started spending more time with myself. Facebook, orkut remained the places to add friends, stay connected in the most cold manner (just wishing each other on birthdays etc) and random exhibitionism. Yeah! I used to rave at people displaying their whole life on such public forums. It made me ask is this really the meaning of 'Social' ?
The book basically looks at how 'facebook' the internet giant of our times came into being. Not just those Harvard dorm stories about a break up and 19 year old's take on it. But the real deal. How Mark Zuckerberg and a bunch of his friends stuck to their guns and revolutionized how people share stuff. How his idea of an open world is changing and affecting us despite the vibes of voyeurisms, rambunctiousness and exhibitionism. It is a fascinating tale. People who have watched the movie 'the Social Network' and raving about arrogance should read the book. 'Facebook' and its story is much bigger than the arrogant vibes the trailers and movie gives. Its about entrepreneurship and being true to your believes. It also opens up new debates on how open we really are and do we really want the world around us to be as open ?
I still believe sharing stuff with a close friend over a coffee is much precious than getting updates on facebook. But the book has given me perspective. With so much data about people, generated by people it will be really very interesting to analyze it and determine trends and look at how we as a human race are progressing or think.
The book on the whole is pretty straightforward. Since it was tracking story of a company it made sense also to have events chronologically. But that makes it insipid and dull. I was literally pushing myself through the parts with the money matters and negotiations. I owe it to the fact that financial transactions normally bore me to death. So if you do plan to read you can ignore this little comment. But truth be told this is no racy thriller or tear inducing drama, though its a thrilling story in quite a few respects. So you really need to be interested in such stuff to read the book. Else one can call it a pass.
~nightflier
P.S. Since reading the book my activity has generally increased on fb. :D