I think I’m not that much different to most people (although that is a rather sweeping statement, I know).

But, in general, I think that most people have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. It has certain points that are useful, some things that are nice to have and some things that are concerning (or, at least, concerning to some).

It is useful that I am able to keep in contact with some friends, scattered around the world. This is particularly good as I don’t live in my country now. This is good because it ‘reminds’ me of them. They post something and I know that they are there, maybe I even make a comment.

It’s nice that it reminds me of birthdays – some people I would never have known their birthday! It’s nice to be able to see photos of them and see that they’re doing well.

I am careful about the information that I put up. My email is hidden. My mobile phone number is not there. I have not said which school or university I went to nor where I work. I don’t want people to be able to randomly see this information. My details are restricted to Friends and not to the Friends of Friends or, even the whole world. If I am a friend of yours (with a few exceptions) you can see everything I post. It’s OK. If you’re not a friend of mine, there must be a reason.

Unfortunately, Facebook changes things from time to time. Recently, it showed you a list of Friends’ phone numbers. Soon it will be passing your details on to other internet addresses. These things I really don’t like. And, yet, by default, it does this without telling you it has done it. That is more than a little annoying.

So, I both love Facebook for what it does for me and hate it for being like a very annoying best friend, who tells your mates things that you would prefer them not to know.

I didn’t want to watch the film. I couldn’t think of anything more boring. However, The Social Network was anything but boring. It was made interesting with the basis being two lawsuits against Mark Zuckerburg with flashbacks as to what had actually happened. I think it painted Zuckerburg as some sort of visionary that, perhaps, was not the reality but, what it really did, from the start, was paint Zuckerburg as an obnoxious twat as far as personality went.

From the beginning, he was hateful. As the film went on, he was hateful. By the end of it, he was hateful. He didn’t have a redeeming feature – except he could program well. He reminded me of some of the worst people (and I stress this is personality-wise) that I have met in the computer industry. People you could not go for a beer with and have a decent conversation. People that, actually, I could deal with at work but once outside work the only thing you wanted to do was kill them. Mind-numbingly, boring people. With a big minus on the social skills.

Oh yes, of course, I would love to be as clever as he is. I would love to have thought up some thing like this and be a billionaire now. But not for the price of having a personality lower than that of a slug. He probably doesn’t feel lonely but that is because he is the head of Facebook but I wonder how many of those friends that he has are real friends; how many would come to aid him in his hour of need? Not that he should care, one way or another.

But, the film was, surprisingly good. Or, rather, it was interesting. It was not slow and laborious and boring as I thought it might be (although it had its moments, as in all films).

Would I watch it again? Probably. Although I’m not sure it will be quite so exciting as the first time of watching. Still, if you haven’t seen it, you should, if only to understand the way that Facebook became as it is now and the dysfunctional characters behind it. For me, it is not entirely a Social Network, hence the title. It is a social network, in some ways. But whatever it is, it is certainly the Facebook Network.