My book review for the November meeting of "The Book Review Club" is
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich. The
Social Network movie was based on the book. Written like a novel based on a lot of stories pieced together, it's a fast read - I read it on the flight from Orlando to Vegas. I have mixed feelings about it, but then I have mixed feelings about Facebook. But reading the book and then analyzing what I wanted from Facebook helped me sort things out.
When I lived and breathed the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, I took pride in being a part of the cutting edge of technology. I was surrounded by really bright people and it challenged me in a positive way to reach and grow professionally. The CEO of Cadence at that time was the best leader of a company I'd ever worked under and his openness created an open, creative culture throughout the company (behind-the-scenes he definitely played hard ball). But when I ventured out from the corporate staff world to launch my career as a writing consultant, I felt the pain of working under more than one CEO with a well-earned reputation for being a real *ss. There were billboards at the time where they bragged about it.
So, I'm not surprised by the picture painted of Mark Zuckerberg. And while I've relished being on the cutting edge of technology for most of my professional career, I am not enamored with Facebook. Never mind the dishonesty of how it came to be (not the first to have questionable beginnings), how much of a control freak Facebook is (from a designer's POV, I hate it), or how addicting it is, the real problem I've run into is that most people don't know how to use technology. "Just because you can doesn't mean you should" is my new motto. The main problem I have with so much of this "social media" hype/fad/cultism is that many don't understand there's a difference between openness, secrecy, and privacy. (I wrote about the problem with photos
here and tips for writers on how to approach Facebook
here.)
Don't get me wrong - there are definite benefits to using it; otherwise, it wouldn't be so popular. And businesses feel the need to have a Facebook presence so that they won't be left out, and as an author, I also have a Facebook page. But other people try it and then leave it, realizing it isn't for them. Not everybody is a group person or an online person or a public person. It'll be interesting to see how long Facebook stays on top or what the next big thing to come along and replace it will be. Because one thing that our culture loves more than anything is the next new, shiny thing.
PS - The comments setting is fixed now. :)
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@Barrie Summy
