BOOK REVIEW: The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World
By David Kirkpatrick, Simon & Schuster, 2010, Hardcover, 384 pages, $26
OK, OK, I know what you are thinking: How could there already be a book about the Facebook phenomenon that could possibly cover what happened in the six years since the site was launched? Well, if the book's hard to believe, you probably haven't seen "The Social Network," the movie about the creation of Facebook that premiered Oct. 1. So why all of the hullaballoo about an internet site that enables users to connect with their friends, post pictures and "poke" each other for no apparent reason? Well the hard data explains that Facebook is easily the most popular thing to hit the internet since email and after accruing 500 million users, it is still growing.
I cannot say "The Facebook Effect," which was penned by the highly decorated tech-beat writer David Kirkpatrick, is riveting. In fact I was completely bored until I read these words: "In June [2004], a financier offered [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg $10 million for the company. Mark had just turned twenty. Thefacebook, as it was orginally called, was four months old. He didn't for a minute think seriously about accepting." Talk about words to make your jaw drop. Actually, mine remained permanently hinged until the book's end, where Zuckerberg still did not sell when the company's value increased by 1,500 times, or $15 billion! Now if that tidbit caused your eyebrows to hit your hairline, then you might want to take a crack at this book.
To tell you the truth, to enjoy this book fully, it is somewhat imperative you be a techie or business jock. Sentences such as "Some risked bringing down the entire site, since its underlying software code consisted of one very long file of instructions, violating elementary design protocols for such a project," accompany business-laden jargon that gets convoluted and tricky (I'll spare you a quote on that end). So, needless to say you can skip a few paragraphs, or chapters.
Furthermore, Kirkpatrick gets so chummy with the young Facebook boys while writing this book, that he likes to describe them in tiresome detail: "Zuckerberg was there, barefoot, wearing a T-shirt from New York's CBGB's nightclub and black baggy basketball shorts." However, underneath all of that fluff, there is a great story to tell, which is mainly fueled by the fact that a handful of twentysomething kids from Harvard managed to create a multibillion-dollar company that changed social networking on the web forever. On top of that, they somehow turned down millions of dollars for the sake of a Zen-like philosophy about human instinct and the innate desire to be socially vulnerable.
Zuckerberg is the main focus of the story since Facebook was his brainchild. He started it in his filthy dorm room and then subsequently brought all of his elite, Ivy League friends on board. It is pretty clear that this riches-to-mega-riches story does not have the same pluck as a Cinderella one, but it will certainly inspire many code-happy programmers along the way. Actually, Zuckerberg and his family had to originally invest about $85,000 the first summer of Thefacebook (mostly for servers), and many of his connections came from ties to Harvard and the like. Yet, this sort of monetary sacrifice by Zuckerberg makes it clear that he was not in it for the money from the get-go -- thereby making him some sort of super-human.
Furthermore, all of the young boys succeed in making key decisions in the story that help them keep their company on the ground and growing. They also fight off corporate juggernauts --Google, MTV, Accel and Yahoo -- who shove millions of dollars in their faces. Zuckerberg even shows the world his true integrity when he breaks down in tears on the bathroom floor of a restaurant while getting pressured to turn his back on a verbal deal he had made (once again, super-human).
Whether you are a social networking supporter, with 1,000 friends on Spybook --oops, I mean Facebook -- or if you are a recluse who has no idea what the hell I am talking about, no one can deny that these young men have changed the way we network on the internet. Furthermore, they did it in a jovial and innovative fashion. So poke your friends, post a comment on your wall or just change your status to "reading The Facebook Effect" if you want to be inspired.