I finally got around to watching The Social Network last weekend. The movie, which chronicles the meteoric rise of Facebook and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, deserves its nomination for best picture in the Academy Award race. It was well done and definitely worth seeing. Theres some debate as to how faithful the movie is to actual events, but the story as presented was fascinating.
Facebook in just a few short years has completely changed how we interact with each other and how we do business and even how we stage a revolution. Its had such an impact on us, Zuckerberg was named Times Person of the Year at the close of 2010.
And its so ubiquitous, its everywhere including now our cars. One of the more attention-grabbing Super Bowl ads was for the Chevrolet Cruze featuring an OnStar communication system with voice commands for accessing Facebook. The premise is that people are going to be checking Facebook while theyre driving anyway, so there may as well be a safer way to do it.
Amazing. We cant seem to figure out how to keep the worlds children from dying of starvation, but we can check the status of our friends while driving across town.
Dont get me wrong: Im a fan of Facebook. Its ability to draw people together is desperately needed for an increasingly detached population. Its another important avenue to connecting people and sharing information. And sometimes, its even used for the higher good and for relaying truly important information.
But at its core, Facebook largely remains one big digital cocktail party, a place to give a shout-out to an old friend, or share a photo of your kids birthday party, or show off just how witty you really are. So far, I havent seen much that couldnt wait until I get home.
So for now, Ill pass on this technological advance. I have three kids, all clamoring for my attention from the back seat thats all the social networking I need when Im motoring.
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Our Life page today features an Associated Press story listing the Top 5 Worst Valentines Day movies. (See story on Page B6 of our print edition.)
The AP missed a big one, the top of my personal list of worst movies to celebrate love: Boxing Helena. The plotline to this 1993 release is described on the IMDb.com website as: A surgeon becomes obsessed with the seductive woman he once had an affair with. Refusing to accept that she has moved on, he amputates her limbs and holds her captive in his mansion. In a box. And thats all you really need to know.
It was, and probably still is, one of the more disturbing movies Ive sat through, affecting me the same way A Clockwork Orange did back in high school. (Yeah, Id pass on Clockwork for Valentines Day, too.)
So what would be a good choice for Valentines Day? If you asked my husband, it would be something with a war theme probably Apocalypse Now. This is the man, after all, who back in the early days of our relationship thought Patton was a good date-night choice. (He did redeem himself by also renting All the Presidents Men, the quintessential newspaper movie.)
My choice would be Gone With the Wind. The sweeping music, the melodrama of love lost and found and lost again, the dashing Rhett Butler, the comfort of knowing tomorrow is another day it has all the makings of a cozy night on the sofa. Alone, of course, because my Valentine thinks its boring.
Im OK with that. Its just more popcorn for me.
Mary Jane Grenzow is the editor of The Monroe Times. She can be reached at editor@themonroetimes.com. To post a response to this column, click on Blogs at www.themonroetimes.com
Facebook in just a few short years has completely changed how we interact with each other and how we do business and even how we stage a revolution. Its had such an impact on us, Zuckerberg was named Times Person of the Year at the close of 2010.
And its so ubiquitous, its everywhere including now our cars. One of the more attention-grabbing Super Bowl ads was for the Chevrolet Cruze featuring an OnStar communication system with voice commands for accessing Facebook. The premise is that people are going to be checking Facebook while theyre driving anyway, so there may as well be a safer way to do it.
Amazing. We cant seem to figure out how to keep the worlds children from dying of starvation, but we can check the status of our friends while driving across town.
Dont get me wrong: Im a fan of Facebook. Its ability to draw people together is desperately needed for an increasingly detached population. Its another important avenue to connecting people and sharing information. And sometimes, its even used for the higher good and for relaying truly important information.
But at its core, Facebook largely remains one big digital cocktail party, a place to give a shout-out to an old friend, or share a photo of your kids birthday party, or show off just how witty you really are. So far, I havent seen much that couldnt wait until I get home.
So for now, Ill pass on this technological advance. I have three kids, all clamoring for my attention from the back seat thats all the social networking I need when Im motoring.
n n n
Our Life page today features an Associated Press story listing the Top 5 Worst Valentines Day movies. (See story on Page B6 of our print edition.)
The AP missed a big one, the top of my personal list of worst movies to celebrate love: Boxing Helena. The plotline to this 1993 release is described on the IMDb.com website as: A surgeon becomes obsessed with the seductive woman he once had an affair with. Refusing to accept that she has moved on, he amputates her limbs and holds her captive in his mansion. In a box. And thats all you really need to know.
It was, and probably still is, one of the more disturbing movies Ive sat through, affecting me the same way A Clockwork Orange did back in high school. (Yeah, Id pass on Clockwork for Valentines Day, too.)
So what would be a good choice for Valentines Day? If you asked my husband, it would be something with a war theme probably Apocalypse Now. This is the man, after all, who back in the early days of our relationship thought Patton was a good date-night choice. (He did redeem himself by also renting All the Presidents Men, the quintessential newspaper movie.)
My choice would be Gone With the Wind. The sweeping music, the melodrama of love lost and found and lost again, the dashing Rhett Butler, the comfort of knowing tomorrow is another day it has all the makings of a cozy night on the sofa. Alone, of course, because my Valentine thinks its boring.
Im OK with that. Its just more popcorn for me.
Mary Jane Grenzow is the editor of The Monroe Times. She can be reached at editor@themonroetimes.com. To post a response to this column, click on Blogs at www.themonroetimes.com
