So being part of the Facebook age with, a not too shabby, 258 friends, my better half and I were keen to see the Social Network; the story of the phenomenon which has influenced means of communication and keeping in touch with friends for the recent past.
Having acquired my television from my grandmother's upgrade, anyone who knows me is unsurprised that I was slow to get onto the technology roller coaster. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I came late to social networking; having missed the trends of myspace and probably just wasn't cool enough for the invitation to a small world. Facebook with its functionality which enabled "cyber-stalking" of ex-boyfriends and voyeuristic assessment of people's lives through shared photo's and status updates came just as the city was stalling with the onset of the global financial crisis. For me, having more free time whilst being sat in front of a computer screen was the impetus needed to beginning a life including Facebook.
So having digressed slightly - back to the film - the Social Network. Now the cinemas that my better half and I prefer tend to be in an area which is highly populated by students so unsurprisingly on opening night of the Social Network we find ourselves in a theatre populated by mainly UCLA Bruins. My better half whispers a query as to whether I thought we were the oldest couple in the theatre. This question actually required me to do a full 360 degree check of our fellow film attendees to confirm that actually we were not - but not by many years. Surprised - probably not - Facebook was created for college networking (and indeed a good few years after I had left the hallowed university halls), at our mid thirties we are probably the higher age end of the medium spectrum of users. So feeling already slightly like I had inadvertently got a ticket to a Justin Beiber concert, I then overheard one young lady saying how she's become a member of facebook in 2006 - great I thought same year as me until I looked at her and realised she was probably 19 at most and quickly doing the maths realized she was 15 at most when joining.... mmmmm. Thankfully before I could ponder my uncomfortableness further the lights went down and the picture began.
Now this is not a column about film reviews I do not intend to reveal anything about the movie itself other than I thought it was an inherently watchable film about the creation of Facebook and how the phenomenon has become part of everyday life for anyone who has or even have not got access to the Internet. A good film not a great film but due to the impact of social networking on our lives and the viral impact of status updates and reviews is probably going to vie for the most watched film of the year.
Now to the real social phenomenon and the point of this entry; as the film comes to an end and the credits begin to roll, the movie-watchers erupt in a cheer and applause as if attending a live show. I am pretty sure this spontaneous clapping, which this English Girl has only encountered in Los Angeles, is not to give credit to the projectionist for his showing of the film. Signs of appreciation in England are not rare - from the rattling of jewelery at the back in the Beatles sixties, clapping a 'good show old boy' whether in sport or entertainment is part of our heritage too. However, for an English girl used to filing silently out of film showings in London, this group appreciation for cinematic films seems out of place to me - do these young and enthusiastic tweens clap as they watched the conclusion to an episode of the latest network shows at home too.
This burst of applause reminded me about another time when group applause seems out of place if not completely inappropriate; the Europeans (particularly the Germans and Spanish) always clap the pilot following a successful landing of a flight - that just makes me wonder what were they thinking was the alternative!
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