Reflective journal CA2

Rachel Tan Shiya

DMC 2A 01

0939902

1. What do you think are the two most influential factors that have contributed to Facebook's success today? Reflect on the impact (both positive and negative) that Facebook or any other social networking tool has on your daily life in relation to these two factors. For each factor, provide at least one appropriate example to support your answer. (10 marks)

I think the two most influential factors that have contributed to Facebook’s success today are:

a.       Mark Zuckerberg’s best friend, Eduardo Saverin, (CFO) is the first influential factor.  He believed in Mark’s idea of Facebook, and trusted him enough to be able to come up with a sum of $19,000 to fund him for the entire Facebook site to come to live and function smoothly – even when there was a possibility of the entire idea ending up as a failure.

b.      Bits and pieces of inspiration given to Mark Zuckerberg by people around him is the second influential factor.  Firstly, his roommate’s idea of comparing the hottest girls in schools leading to the creation of www.facemash.com.  Where his success later led him to the twin’s and their business partner/friend, who then planted in him the idea of creating a site for exclusivity (with Harvard).  However, this idea later metamorphosised into a whole new level of exclusivity where it virtually clusters “similar” people together with the formation of groups for an innate sense of belonging.
 

Positive Impact

Relating to the first influential factor, Eduardo Saverin’s trust and believe in Mark Zuckerberg, and his funds, contributed to Facebook’s success.  This really impressed upon me positively as it showed me that if not for the friendship between this two guys, Facebook may not have the funds to start up, less to say become a billion dollar business.  I was really touched when Eduardo opened an $18,000 check for Mark when he did not even know whether everything will work out as Mark wanted them to be.   One true best friend indeed cannot be compared to many friends.  Friendships are really invaluable as it goes a long way, especially if I learn to cherish and appreciate them.

Relating to the second influential factor, Mark Zuckerberg was constantly open to new ideas and challenges of creating new online sites, and had an entrepreneur spirit.  This impacted me positively as Mark’s fast and brilliant thoughts taught me to be constantly alert of opportunities and ideas presented before me that I myself may be unaware of.  I should pay more attention during conversation with friends, and engage in more social activity whilst listening to others speak about their ideas.  From there I could re-evaluate what is being said and perhaps further explore into possible opportunities like setting up a business.  

Negative Impact

Relating to the second influential factor, Mark Zuckerberg did use underhand methods to get what he wanted, like hacking into the school’s computer system to get the photos for fasemash.  This is definitely one negative impact as it gives out the message that hacking is cool and that using any method even if it is unethical is ok as long as you get what you want.  As far as hacking is concern, I cannot hack so I may probably think of ways to get a school project done nicely even if it mean using unethical methods like eavesdropping and stealing other group’s ideas, as well as not put much attention on whether others’ privacy has been invaded.  Since information can be obtained fairly easily online, so unethically, these information can be used to my own benefits, which may be harmful to the image of the other party, as long as I don’t break the law.

2. The movie focuses a lot on ethical issues and responsible use of social networking tools. Briefly describe any one example of unethical/ irresponsible use of Facebook in the movie and discuss your views on it. Provide one example of how you can engage an online community ethically on any one social networking tool of your choice. (10 marks)
  
Since there are no unethical uses of facebook mentioned in the movie itself, I’m going to list and discuss the unethical events (i.e. use of social networking tools) preceding facebook.   They are:

(a)  Mark Zuckerberg talked negatively about his girlfriend on his blog where a 3^rd party could gain access to. 

I personally feel that this is unethical and can be considered as a case of defamation as he said things that could possibly lower the reputation of the girl in the eyes of a fair-minded person, which was true as portrayed by a scene where the girl was being made fun of by a guy outside the door of her dorm room.  Mark should have kept his blog private or perhaps leash out his feelings in a diary.

(b)  The unethical process of coming up with www.facemash.com (comparing two persons and see which one is hotter). Because Harvard does not keep a centralised public facebook and Mark Zuckerberg needed a lot of pictures, he decided to get the individual pictures from the individual houses (dorm house) they are in, which is an illegal way of doing so as it requires a substantial amount of hacking into the school’s computer system to obtain these pictures for people to vote online. 

As a girl, I would totally hate to see pictures of myself and girls being compared and circulated so easily.  I mean like who are the guys to say who is hotter than the other.  I was not surprised that Mark Zuckerberg was “shunned” by girls after the incident as the website was insulting, and the pictures were used and circulated without permission.  The process of creating the site was genius but the idea was childish and unethical.

(c)   Mark Zuckerberg apparently stole the idea of facebook from the twins and their friend which can be considered unethical if true.

From the viewers point of view, I feel that Mark Zuckerberg did not entirely steal the “facebook” idea from the twins and their friends instead perhaps bits and pieces of inspiration.  One thing I cannot understand is why Mark did not rope them in when he knew that they wanted to create a social networking site and he had already promised them in advance that he would be part of the whole idea with them.  The unethical part could possibly that Mark did not even bother to keep in contact with them and involve them in his plans for facebook when they were the ones who planted that idea in him of creating facebook for exclusivity although Mark got to a whole new level of exclusivity on his own.

An example of how I can engage an online community ethically on facebook is:

Using the same idea as the facemash, I can do it ethically by creating an event page of an “all-girls comparing face” competition on facebook and get people to join.  Photos of the contestants can be collated by asking girls to submit photos on their own free will from their own accounts, if they want to join the competition, which also implies their consent to allow everyone to vote for the hotter one.