The Social Network: Student’s opinions on new era, but same lame gender roles

By Ruby Araiza, Cristina Montes, & Anthony Noga 

 

Ruby’s view:

Woman have come a long way as far as having a voice vs. the 1920s when they weren’t even allowed to vote. All though things have changed since some things such as gender roles in movies haven’t. In the movie, the social network is a good example how woman are viewed as less than men. Mark Zuckerberg is famous for being the founder and creator of Facebook. Facebook has been very successful and has made him the youngest billionaire. This movie didn't only show the birth of Facebook but it also put out Mark Zuckerberg’s flaws such as computer hacking. He has portrayed as very devious, a backstabber, and misogynist.

The Social Network not only brings out Mark Zuckerberg’s dirty laundry but it also exposes a lot of sexism throughout it. Mark Zuckerberg along with his entrepreneurs are portrayed as young, geeky, geniuses’ while the women are portrayed as floozies, and disposable one night stands. There are plenty of women that come out throughout the film but it’s to cater to these men. It is pretty hard to name the ethical parts of this movie when Mark Zuckerberg hacks into directories and computers. I mean hacking itself is an illegal act and not so much as only unethical. Mark Zuckerberg was charged for breach of security and violation of privacy. In the movie he spends most of his time in courts being sued for his wrongdoing which again makes it very difficult for me to see any ethical behavior.

The movie over says “ You don't get 500 million friends without making few enemies”. That statement itself gives off a negative vibe about the film. It was unethical from computer hacking, stealing ideas, betraying his partner/friend, and the demeaning of women. I was appalled at it all but more so at the fact that Facebook started from the misogynistic campus website he created. In this website, his college male peers and he would rate female colleagues. They were compared to farm animals based on their looks and were publically ranked. Sure one might say The Social Network might come off as very sexist because it is told from the men’s perspective but either way their acts in this movie were based on very misogynistic acts and views.

Unfortunately, The Social Network isn’t the only movie that is sexist. Children’s Disney movies are based on gender roles. I personally love princes' movies and have a daughter that loves them as well but I don't want her getting the idea that she must fall in love with and marry a prince in order to live happily ever after. I try to teach her about the importance of being a strong independent woman. To love her self above everything which is why I like her to watch the more empowering Disney movies such as Mulan, Brave, and Moana. These movies aren’t your traditional gender role Disney movie. Although we have come along way from the 1920’s, unfortunately, there are currently still gender roles in the movies we view as you can see. I strongly believe that women should be treated fairly and that men shouldn't be downplayed in today’s modern era. When will these gender roles be stopped is the question?  We live in a new era but with same lame gender roles…

Cristina's View:

The film The Social network seems to put out women in a very sexist way. This movie starts up with a lot of gender bias. Since the beginning, Mark Zuckerberg looks like a complete jerk because as he is talking to his girlfriend he makes it seem like he is better than her. When she broke up with his he went and created a website where people could vote to see who was the hottest girl from Harvard. Sexism takes a big part in this film because as they created Facebook there were able to bash on girls and just make it seem like girls were nothing.  

Simply in this film, there were no big woman roles it was pure men. Sexism is a big part of many daily things, though it has slowed down quite a bit it is still a big problem just like it is in this film. The gender relationships in this film go on through the whole movie. They found sexism as to be their pinpoint and to make their creation (Facebook) drama. Sexism is shown in the way that the boys use Facebook to put down girls. Like Eduardo instead of putting that he was in a relationship I didn't and that's why his girlfriend broke up with him. We might see sexism as more of back in the day because things have changed now women can vote and many other things. Though it was worst back in the day sexism is still part of our lives! We live in a world where it seems as sexism will never go away and this fill shows a good example of it. We can't say that they are old men that’s why it seems that they might be acting sexist because they aren't they are college students to top it off they are Harvard students doing this. They are supposed to be smart, intelligent young adults. I mean they are but they seem to also be childish to do those things like creating a website to see what Harvard girl is the hottest. 

Sexism, gender bias are things we will see forever I truly believe. As I think and think I cannot find a way that sexism will go away because even if we have a woman president there will still be males especially that will disagree with us having a woman president. Even some woman grow up believing that they are only good for being stay-at-home-moms and housewives. The question that I keep asking myself as I am writing part of this blog is will sexism ever go away? If so how? I seem to come to the same answers that there is no way that sexism will completely disappear or go away. Many men think like these young men on this film that they own women and that they are better than women. I said it at the beginning of this blog and I am going to say it again the way the movie started made me notice the sexism right away because as they are talking, Zuckerberg talks he seems to be putting his girlfriend down.

Antony's view:

Gender relationships have been a big problem lately in the movie you see Mark telling his girlfriend how lucky she is to be with him. Also when they were first starting there social media website it was only females that were the ones on the site that other men were able to pick from on which was hot or not. They also talked about how males would be more successful than women would be. I would even come close to say there was a lot of feminism in this movie. Men should never try and think nor act like they are better than females in the movie you see that throughout the beginning of the movie. If he would have made the social media to wear you could talk to people like he did later on. Going through and just letting people pick who’s hot or not is just wrong in all aspects. There are different ways that people could go about gender profiling. The worst part is now we see it more and more through our regular days Pepe are not just judging male or female there judging people for making life choices. I believe that he could have started a different types of social media accounts that he could done and not been so bias to females.

Social Media's fake news spreads like wildfires!

Social media has replaced newspapers because it is preferred over the conventional news.In our pockets, we carry the main source of where we get our information. If you want knowledge on what is going on in the world all you have to do is reach into your pocket, pull out your cell phone and get online. In a matter of seconds, you will have news from all over the world. But, is the information that we are obtaining from social media fiction or fact? Credibility is a big issue we face on social media. It is very difficult to know what to believe or not online. In the Ted talk video " How to see past your own perspective and find the truth" it talks about how hard it is to tell the difference between real or fake the more we read or search for information online.

There is an importance of story-telling on social media because that's how it gains its audience. Facebook is currently the most popular way of obtaining information about what is happening in the world. Individuals prefer the use of Facebook to obtain news on what is currently happening around the world because it is very handy. It is much easier to log on it to check what is new than to go buy a newspaper or go home to watch the television for breaking news. The users of this site share the news stories, images, and videos that they see on it without verifying whether what they are sharing is true or not. This is how false information is spread throughout social networks in a matter of minutes just like wildfires.

News on social networks such as Facebook can be misleading because the source of pictures and news can be edited and written by the interest of its readers. This gives the audience the important task of being wise. and choose whether to believe it or not. Facebook is too often misused to create as well as spread fake news because there isn't anyone to verify the credibility of the source the information is coming from. I personally have shared news on this website without prior knowledge of its credibility and I have also seen other people on it do the same. From my personal perspective, it is extremely difficult to differentiate between whats real or fake. The Ted video in regards to seeing past your own perspective has shared some light on the fact that we as a society are so susceptible to fake news and I am shocked. 

There definitely should be ways of preventing the spread of fake news. Social websites should not allow posts of news without it coming from credible sources. They should make sure that the news being posted comes from a registered media organization. But ultimately it is up to users to not share the news that they are unsure of. Just as The Ted Talks video suggest, "we need to dare to know, and we also should dare to understand". We as a society should challenge ourselves to not be so quick to accept what we see and read on the internet we should question the source of information we are getting it from and work for ourselves to seek the truth behind it before we spread fake news like wildfire. 

What is right from wrong to Google?

Social media “Google” has become our main source of seeking information. Is the information we search for biased or non-biased? I personally have never stopped to question it until I saw the Ted video “the moral bias behind your search results” by Andreas Ekstrom. This Ted video compares Google searching Michelle Obama, and Anders Behring Breivik. Apparently, there was a racist campaign against Michelle Obama once. When you would Google search Michelle Obama a picture of a distorted monkey would pop up. The same thing happened to Anders Behring Breivik when you would Google search him a piece of dog poop would appear. Both Michelle and Breivik were victims of cruel manipulative search results except Google intervened with Michelle Obama's racial picture and prevented that picture from popping up on Google searches and did nothing for Breivik's behalf. Google decided that Michelle Obama was an honorable woman and Anders Behring Breivik was not.

        Because Google, our major source of retrieving information has the power to evaluate individuals and control what information we receive from it, some might say it was wrong of Google to have only intervened for Michelle and not Breivik, but was it? Sure that both Michelle Obama and Anders Behring Breivik were both victims of manipulative search results but think about it, one individual was the first lady of the United States, and the other individual was a terrorist. In this particular case, there had to have been a moral evaluation. I understand that the Ted video says that Google isolates facts and that is true but there is a difference when speaking of knowledge and morality. Knowledge is comprehension of facts or skills gained through a persons experience or education. When speaking of morality you are speaking of right from wrong. In this particular case, I agree with Google’s action to have intervened on Michelle Obama's behalf.

Although many might disagree that Google intervened with one and not the other, the context of the situation was way different. Michelle Obama is a lawyer and was the first lady of the United States from the year 2009 to the year 2017 while Anders Behring Breivik is a Norwegian far-right terrorist responsible for killing 80 people. I don't believe Google was hiding or censoring information in this particular situation, I believe that it altered the way we accessed it in order to help our morality. One can argue that it's not immoral to make fun of someone that has done a bad thing, but that raises the question of who is Google to decide what is and isn’t morally righteous. Either way, I believe that Google plays a huge role in our everyday lives and because of that, they have a big responsibility in not only what information we receive out of our Google search results from it but also in it controlling morality on searches from it. It is such a difficult task to be a good person but it is an even bigger task to face a moral dilemma and know how to proceed. Ultimately, whether Google controls morality on what we search for on it, we the users get to determine whether or not to listen. We are our own decision makers.

Puppets on strings

It's amazing how society has given social media the power over controlling it just like puppets on strings. When I think about social media, I think about fun, communicating, family, and friends. Other people might think it's a way of sending and receiving information while Others might think it's a way to become popular, and get updates. I’m sure thousands of people share the same definition in all.

         Social media for sure has become a big part of people’s lives in present day. Now forms of communicating are done through social media. When you don't get a reply to a text you can message the person through other means like Facebook. Instead of buying a CD to listen to your favorite sing now you can go to YouTube and watch your favorite singers videos there. Now even our cellphones are replacing newspapers. If you want to see what’s on the news you don't have to get out of bed to get the newspaper. All you have to do is reach over to your phone and look at the Twitter timeline. Job searching is done through social media even applying to jobs is done through websites when back in the day you had to apply in person. Everything surrounds around social media because it is much easier to do things through it.

Society has become dependent on social media. In a Ted talks video “How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day” it explains why society has become so dependent on it. This video explains how technological companies have control rooms dedicated to steer people’s thoughts. They are dedicated to compete for people’s attention. This video gives an example of Snap Chat. Snap Chat has replaced texting for teens. This app lets you know who you have communicating 150 days in a row called a “snap streak”. Teens don't want to lose that communication so they get addicted to keeping up with their snap streak.

Another great thing this video points at is how social media uses outrage as fuel to get people sucked into giving their attention. I personally see that on my news feed daily. Right now the topic that has been blowing up my timeline on FaceBook is on a famous football player Colin Kaepernick. This football player kneeled for the anthem instead of standing. 


The reason why he said he kneeled instead of stand was because he was in support of Black Lives Matter and to protest police violence against black people. He said  “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color”. There’s a lot of outrage because of this. A lot of people are outraged that he kneeled instead of standing and are calling him disrespectful for peacefully protesting and using his freedom of speech. Consequently, he has now been voted the most disliked player from the NFL and has lost a lot of endorsements.

As you can see outrage is very good at getting peoples attention. If a person is upset at something they share on their timeline and in seconds friends can view, respond and share their post. This Ted video points out how an outrage feed would win over a calm feed and I see it and believe it. There’s more negativity on my news feed then positive feed and that sadness me. This video sure opened up my eyes.

Technology companies profit out of keeping our attention and things are only going to get worse because of it. It affects us all, we have become so dependent on social media sites that we chose SnapChatting, or Facebooking over face-to-face conversations with our friends and loved ones. You can see for yourself, next time you are out at a restaurant, instead of meaning full conversations you will see people on there cell phones. We are so easily persuaded and that is scary! This video brought so many things into perspective. It made me realize how I too have become a puppet to social media and why!