Facebook isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.

I saw the Social Network yesterday and one of the central themes was Zuckerburg’s desire to make Facebook cool, and, by association, to be cool. I have no idea if Zuckerburg started Facebook to be cool*, but Facebook isn’t cool** and it never was. Facebook is an interesting and new way to communicate and share what is actually cool. It’s a medium, and trying to make it cool seems disingenuous and sort of gave the movie a feeling of inauthenticity. This isn’t a movie review, but, while beautifully shot***, often the movie felt like when you were in high school and your parents would say something like “word” because they heard your friend say it and it just made you cringe.

Apple products are cool right now. Ed Hardy products aren’t cool right now. Both of these things are things and portray an image. Facebook isn’t a thing in the same sense, it’s a tool, it’s like using words. It’s not cool, it’s not even notable. The idea of an entire generation of college students using Facebook because they thought it was cool is absurd. They (we) just recognized a better way to talk about themselves and other people.

*If he is as intelligent as he was portrayed, and often seems to be in the press, I can’t imagine that was the reason.

**I mean in the cultural sense. If you are into web tech, then sure, Facebook might be cool to you.

***The tilt-shifted regatta was gorgeous.

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