In The Social Network, oligarchy is inevitable

... and we might all be losers.

Justin Timberlake, Jessie Eisenberg - The Social Network - 2010 (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

October 1^st marks the 15^th anniversary of The Social Network, a film that was great when it was released but has turned into one of the most chillingly prescient films of our time. Just as Citizen Kane isn’t really about journalism, The Social Network isn’t really about social media. But the film, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, does land a number of pointed predictions about where social media, in general, and Facebook, specifically, led us throughout the 2010s.

Sure, he’s a loser, because he is cringe, but we’re losers, too, because he’s shaping the world we live in.

Looking back 15 years later, though, what stands out is how well the film nails the type of people who drive our digital present. Sorkin and Fincher always maintained the film is not a biopic of Mark Zuckerberg, and yet, The Social Network nailed him to the floor. There are three evolutions in The Social Network that capture how Zuckerberg went from millennial boy genius to oligarchical Batman villain, and it starts with the Winklevii…