The Endlessly Re-Watchable Prophecy of ‘The Social Network’

It’s been a decade since David Fincher’s less-than-flattering look at Facebook’s founder hit the big screen. Here’s why we can’t stop watching this preview of the apocalypse.

Columbia Pictures

By Meg Shields · Published on September 28th, 2020

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video that explores the prophetic The Social Network ten years after its initial premiere.

Back in 2010, no one could have predicted the full scope of Facebook’s impact on the 21st century. From the Big Tech antitrust hearing to the inexhaustible privacy concerns to the politically pernicious algorithms. That said, if anyone had an inkling of what was to come, it was David Fincher. Clearly, that man has a crystal ball he’s not telling us about.

A decade after the film’s release, The Social Network endures as a scalding character study of the social media site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg (portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg), and as an enchanted art-artifact radiating a queasy sense of prophecy. As history unfolds (rather terrifyingly, I might add), Fincher’s film consistently re-reveals new and terrifying forms of prescience. Whether it’s the #MeToo movement or the innocuous evil of Silicon Valley, The Social Network continues to feel like a meticulously clinical and endlessly re-watchable preview of the apocalypse.

Watch “The Social Network – Ten Years Later“:

Who made this?

This video essay was put together by the Texas-based Royal Ocean Film Society, which is run by Andrew Saladino. You can browse their back catalog of videos on their Vimeo account here. If Vimeo isn’t your speed, you can give them a follow on YouTube here.