On Friday, I attended an opening night showing of the highly anticipated film The Social Network, directed by David Fincher.
As I sat down in the theatre, I pulled out my Blackberry, ready to update my status, but thought otherwise.
During this movie, I would ignore texts, emails, BBMs and any other communication and simply focus on the movie as if it was 2004, before the brain of online networking became a reality.
The dark, ominous color palette and immediate emphasis on rush acceptance made me believe I was watching Dead Poets Society: The College Years.
With it’s dictated rugby flavor, reminiscent of a Ralph Lauren campaign, I felt insubordinate watching these Ivy League students grope each other over spilt beers.
As it’s not my intention to expose the movie’s plot, I do think it is part of my social responsibility to inform you of some key points.
Stating that I enjoyed the movie would be underselling my opinion.
It was intellectual, witty and cleverly written, which leads me to my next point: the vernacular of the movie was entirely over embellished.
I feel pretty confident that not every college student speaks in such a way that would rival a poem by Maya Angelo, but then again, not every student is a Harvard student.
I won’t pretend to imply that enrolling in Harvard would be less than honorable (after all, it’s the school of choice for every student in the United States).
But I question whether I really needed Harvard school spirit drilled in my mind for two hours of my life.
Regardless, the movie’s agenda was to question friendship and how society has overvalued an acquaintance with the title of “friend.”
It glorified geeks as badasses, while simultaneously portraying them as the scapegoats of postmodern American capitalism.
It is the plot of this movie that addresses why we no longer have the time to share information with friends verbally, as opposed to clicking a button to notify them.
We’ve compressed ourselves into 140 character messages, instead of expressing our full thoughts freely.
I highly recommend you see this film at least once.
There is an important message we should all remember: a chicken doesn’t eat a chicken.
Mike Trobiano can be reached at laura.mike.trobiano@gmail.com.