As technology develops, our world becomes a much simpler and more convenient place to live. We send messages with the click of a button, talk to family members across the room with the click of a few keys, and write letters via email, sending them to arrive in our pen pal's inbox by a few seconds. Communication between people has never been so immediate, so fast and so easy as it is today. Paradoxically, the ease of communication between people has probably also led to a lack of disconnection. Experts say that tweeting at each other, messaging each other on Facebook, or emailing on Google hurts our social interactions and erodes our ability to understand each other face to face. After taking this communication course and watching The Social Network, I discovered several ways in which the main character, Mark Zuckerberg, fails to communicate and understand his peers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first example of miscommunication occurs early in the film between the protagonist, Mark Zuckerberg, and his girlfriend at the time, Erica Albright. While watching the movie, I initially thought that Mark and Erica were on a date and not in a long-term relationship. However, as the conversation continues, the audience not only learns of Mark's lack of communication skills, but that Erica is, in fact, his girlfriend. As Mark spoke, I noticed that he did so with ease, jumping from one topic to another and returning to old topics. However, I have also noticed how this can be extremely confusing for many people, as we see in Erica's bewildered expression. This scene is just the tip of the iceberg of Mark's poor communication skills. Not only can he not communicate fluently with his girlfriend, someone he has supposedly known for months, but he can't even read her facial expressions and body language, another important part of communication and interaction. By observing their conversation, I could easily distinguish and interpret where Erica was upset by Mark's condescending words. For example, when she made fun of her Boston University education or when she insisted that she wouldn't meet the people he introduced her to on her own because she simply didn't belong in that crowd, as Mark believed she did. Also, I found it interesting that Mark was so out of touch not only with his girlfriend's thoughts and feelings, but with people in general. I thought this was an important scene to address in the film because it really exemplified Mark's self-centered attitude, his lack of connection with people, and also highlighted how he operates above the normal level of human thought . The next example of a lack of communication that I think is important was Mark's email exchange between Cameron, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra. After Mark angrily creates his Facemash website to get back at Erica for leaving him, he receives an extreme amount of attention from his fellow students, mostly negative attention. However, Cameron, Tyler, and Divya, upperclassmen attending Harvard, discover Mark through their student newspaper. The group approaches Mark about helping them build a website they've been working on for the past few months called Harvard Connection. With little to no hesitation, Mark accepts and begins work on the website. However, we find out that Mark is working on a siteWeb, but it's not Harvard Connection. As we watch Mark work tirelessly on his supposedly better website, we also see him exchanging emails back and forth with Divya. Mark creates endless excuses, whether it's to go to class, eat with his parents, or request more time, in an attempt to avoid the threesome. On page 121, our textbook states, “…our emails, text messages, tweets, and wall postings lack the nonverbal cues and cues we provide in face-to-face conversations.” Using email, Mark easily leads the Trio, allowing them to believe that Mark is working on their website. Although Mark intentionally misleads them, there is a chance that the trio might have noticed Mark's lack of interest in their website and lies if they had had face-to-face exchanges, rather than via email. Furthermore, this time the Trio wasting Mark's wait ends up costing them dearly, as Mark is able to create the first, exclusive social networking site. This is also a major example of a lack of communication on Mark's part because as the film develops, we see his excuses come back to haunt him in the lawsuit filed against him. Furthermore, Mark makes it clear that from the beginning, in his mind, he had no intention of working on Harvard Connection, yet he promised the trio that he would. This once again demonstrates Mark's lack of not only communication, but also consideration for those around him. Even though I didn't particularly like Cameron, Tyler, or Divya, I felt they were entitled to an explanation from Mark, especially after he promised to help them. It also shows Mark's selfishness, once again, as he not only leads the group to believe that he is working on their website, but he also basically takes their idea. Later in the film, after Mark has put TheFacebook.com online and has grown to encompass the student bodies of many Ivy League schools, we see another major example of miscommunication. At the beginning of the film, when Mark and Eduardo decide to create TheFacebook, Mark explicitly states that profits or earnings of any kind would be split 70/30. Respectively, Mark would have received 70, while Eduardo received 30. This proposal was joyfully accepted by Eduardo. However, we see Mark's selfishness emerge again later in the film when Facebook receives $500,000 from an investor. Previously, Eduardo was angry at Mark allowing Sean Parker, co-founder of another popular website, to make business decisions considering that was Eduardo's job. In retaliation, Eduardo froze the accounts that Facebook was using to continue functioning. However, having learned of the money, Eduardo unblocks the accounts and everything seems to return to normal. This, unfortunately, is not the case. We find that with the investment Eduardo's earnings go from 30% to a meager 0.03%. This situation could have been addressed in several ways to avoid the lawsuit that Eduardo will eventually file against Mark. First, Mark could have respected the fact that without Eduardo there would be no Facebook. However, at this point in the film the audience has had plenty of time to realize how arrogant and conceited Mark can be. Furthermore, Eduardo could have dealt with the discovery in different ways, but he chose anger and confrontation first. Overall, I felt that this point in the film all ties back to Mark's lack of communication that we see peppered throughout the film. Not only does he not try to communicate, he doesn't even care. He barely makes the effort to understand Erica, to speak normally with the three or to inform Eduardo, his best friend and business partner..