The new Facebook movie opened up at the top of the box office last weekend, which no doubt came as a big surprise to many observers.
Who would have guessed so many people would log off Facebook long enough to watch a twohour movie?
"The Social Network" was as eagerly anticipated as any recent Hollywood film based on a hot new trend. After all, 500,000,000 Facebook users can't be wrong. That's right; Facebook has 500 million members across the world.
The most amazing thing to consider about Facebook - and its social network counterpart Twitter - is its rapid growth over such a short time. Not so long ago, these kinds of outlets simply didn't exist, at least not to anyone who didn't live in a college dorm.
In 2004, a Harvard undergraduate named Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea to create an all-purpose networking site on the Internet that would serve his peers group, only to watch it mushroom to the point where adults in just about every modern country in the world have some sort of Facebook connection.
Clearly, it's not just for college students anymore.
The network Zuckerberg created made him rich beyond his imagination as it grew into a daily touchstone for millions of "friends" of all ages who regularly communicate, update their status, hit "Like" to agree with something and send birthday wishes.
Facebook is free of charge and allows single individuals to amass as many as 5,000 friends for their page in order to create a virtual online community network.
I use both Facebook and Twitter in my career and personal life. My social networks include family, friends and colleagues but also local and national news sources including elected officials and assorted celebrities. They are not all "friends" in the way I usually use the word, but it's better than "followers," the word Twitter uses, which frankly suggests cult-like behavior to me.
The rise in social networks represents an essential tool for journalists who want to distribute news and information over the Internet to a new audience in a new form. Social media like Facebook and Twitter have been derided as frivolous, mainly because of the people who used it in a frivolous fashion to post mundane updates on ordinary life.
(OK, guilty as charged. Sometimes.)
But when big news events happen - an earthquake, a flood, a crackdown on dissidents in Iran - the value of these bold new avenues to relay information becomes starkly apparent.
Because it's the first movie to tackle the subject, "The Social Network" is more concerned with Facebook's origins as an entrepreneurial venture by a young genius than with explaining the impact of technology that has redefined interpersonal relationships during the first decade of the 2000s.
One thing's for sure, Facebook and others are definitely not a fad. Every public school system, in particular, should start training students how to use the current social media to their best advantage. Just like dinosaurs that became extinct because of a too-small brain, failure to recognize changing conditions could signal a death knell for those who get left behind.
Believe me, there will be nothing to "Like" about that.
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