The Facebook Effect
David Kirkpatrick
Simon & Schuster
372 pages
I'll be honest...
I use Facebook. I know, it's truly shocking. However, even though I am a fan of Facebook, that doesn't necessarily mean that I think Facebook is perfect. Heck no. I've always had this itch in the back of my head that something about it just wasn't right, and when the privacy debate took center stage a few months ago, I told everyone I knew to make sure their privacy settings were set where they wanted to be because they couldn't trust Facebook. Then I heard about this book, "The Facebook Effect," as well as the upcoming movie "The Social Network" (which is about the making of Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg), I had an bad feeling about what was going on. I was becoming over-saturated with Facebook. I had some personal reservations against Zuckerberg based on what I had read about him, but still felt drawn to the story of how something like Facebook came about. Hence, I sucked it up and read "The Facebook Effect." I had to force myself to open the cover of the book and before I knew it I had finished.
Facebook is a funny thing. How did it happen? Well according to the book, Zuckerberg and his roommates at Harvard were always doing projects because a) they could afford to and b) they wanted to. Zuckerberg had done a few projects before he got the idea for Facebook (one of the projects almost got him kicked out of Harvard), but he had this idea in his head that never went away-connecting everyone through honesty and communication. Now this had already been toyed with by other companies. Friendster had gained immediate success before it burnt out from overcapacity, and Myspace, though just started and picking up steam, just didn't seem right. So Zuckerberg and company created thefacebook (the name officially changed to Facebook later on) and opened its doors to the Harvard campus. From there it went camput to campus, then from high school to high school, and then, finally, it went public.
Here's the thing...can you remember life before Facebook? Life before social networking became such an integral part of people's lives is rapidly becoming harder to recall. I was able to join Facebook before many people because I had my university email (the key to joining Facebook for a long time) so I've been more immersed in for a longer period of time, for better or for worse. But even still, Facebook and I have had our budding romance since 2006-2007. Facebook officially existed beginning in September of 2005. It has not even been around 5 years yet!!
Immersion aside, Facebook itself is a great success story. Here was a guy, barely a legal adult, leading the way to build something that not even he nor his cohorts could really fathom, but they knew they were paving the way. And remember, there were other social networking sites that began before Facebook, and there's been soooo many in existence in the past 4 years, but not many have been able to stand up to Facebook, even collectively. And this leads into what is so good about this book. You are reading about one of those rare success stories about someone who stumbled into success with hard work, intelligence, and luck. The play-by-play of how this company began in a dorm room (seriously, this is just as impressive as Microsoft beginning in a garage) and ends with the megastructure that houses the still-growing staff. About how mega-rich executives thought they could bully, swindle, outsmart, coerce, and manipulate this person in his low 20s with no business experience, and how they paid dearly for underestimating him.
This leads me into my one critique of the book, and unfortunately it's kind of a biggie but something everyone should be thinking when reading nonfiction - what is the relationship between the author and the subject? Kirkpatrick, the author, states a few times throughout the book that he has a semi-personal relationship with Zuckerberg. He even goes as far to say that the book wouldn't have been written if Zuckerberg and other members of Team Facebook hadn't pitched and convinced him of the idea. This isn't to say that he only portrays the company and the founder as rainbows and unicorns. No, not at all. However, regarding some major issues through out Facebook's controversies (such as the lawsuit claiming Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook) the author seems to be firmly planted in the kid's corner. Regarding the privacy issue, the author believes what Zuckerberg and the others involved with the company believe: it's not so much they are trying to manipulate everone's information in an untrustworthy manner, it's just that they are breaking the mold and people aren't ready for it yet. Personally, I'm on the fence. I still don't like the idea of a company storing up information, sharing that information, and so forth. However, the interpretation of "you're just not ready for it yet" does have some merit. Most of the new implementations that Facebook has done have been met with harsh criticism, but over time people begin to adapt and enjoy the changes.
So I'll be honest, I really enjoyed this book. I admit that maybe I'm seduced by the story of someone that has passed up money in order to achieve his vision. Even so, it's a well written book that makes you want to see how this company was formed, how relationships were built and destroyed, and also what it is about Facebook that has captured the attention of the entire planet. It started with college students as a way to have a virtual yearbook, and has become one of the best ways for companies and institutions to reach their customers (even libraries are doing it, see one example here: http://www.facebook.com/ChesapeakePublicLibrary). Even for those that hate Facebook (the very few people that do) I'd recommend to read this book. It's a success story, a well written one at that, and it lets you see through the major players' eyes why Facebook is the 2nd most visited site on the Internet (next to Google) while Myspace is still free-falling, counting the seconds until it hits bottom. The best part is Facebook will never stop evolving. We all better get used to it and hold on tight...it's going to be a bumpy, but wonderful, ride.
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