Film Analysis: The Facebook Obsession

The Facebook Obsession is an hour-long documentary produced by CNBC, focusing on the story of Facebook from 2004 until the film’s production in 2010. The documentary is narrated by Lester Holt and features various stories from everyday users of Facebook. The film also showcases the story and struggle of how Facebook evolved into what it is today. The driving force behind all these stories is to illustrate to the viewer the impact Facebook had on the public, and how the “Obsession” had spread like wildfire in the 6 short years it was available to the public. In this documentary, the filmmakers do not follow a linear beginning to end storyline to tell Facebook’s story. Instead, it jumps back and forth between several user’s stories of how Facebook has affected their lives for better or for worse. Just after the introduction, we are whisked off to a small town, where a woman in her early twenties is on a quest to find her biological mother. The viewer is shown the heartwarming story of how, through the power of Facebook, she has reconnected with her mother for the first time since birth. Not long after we are left with a rather positive view of the capabilities of Facebook, we are shown how police departments across the nation are using it as a tool to catch suspects from various degrees of crimes by going through what is public on people 's Facebook feed. This for me was the most influential examples of what Facebook is capable of in the film. For me, it hit right at home as I often believe my privacy can be encroached upon by anyone with access to the internet. I agree with the woman in the film that argued that her information was being used more as a marketing tool first and foremost, rather than a way to connect with friends. The message of skepticism towards Facebook could be felt throughout the film. If one had to guess solely from the title what the point of the film was, one would speculate that based off the word “obsession” and its negative connotation, the documentary was conveying a slightly more negative message. To sum the film up in a few words, the filmmakers were trying to get across the message: “Look at how much power Facebook has should any company be able to have this influence over so many?” With this message in mind, I believe its target audience were those who have not yet got on the Facebook bandwagon, in addition to those who are already on Facebook and have thought of leaving. The filmmakers make points for both sides, but ultimately, it’s …show more content…
The Social Network (2010) was the movie featured in the documentary, and its’ stars briefly talked about the story of the film and how it related to reality. We then were shown Zuckerberg, who was quick to quip back, stating that the story was just an exaggeration of what really happened, nothing close to real life. Beyond bringing in a few of Zuckerberg’s friends to attest to his character, we don’t get to see anything from before Zuckerberg’s college years. The film doesn’t do a great job at analyzing any detail of Zuckerberg’s childhood, making it hard to understand the full story. We don’t know anything about what made him the incredibly socially awkward kid who developed the largest social network in the