Is Asperger's contagious? Can an Asperger's victim change your brain?

The Social Network movie poster

I finally got round to seeing THE SOCIAL NETWORK. As everybody on the planet must know by now, it tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, brilliant Harvard undergraduate, who created Facebook. As played by Jesse Eisenberg, he is socially inept, and, as a result, when Facebook makes him millions, he is sued by various friends and classmates who claim he stole their idea or whom he has allegedly defrauded. The picture tells much of its story through supposed depositions in that case. In the end, Zuckerberg settles the case, giving untold millions away to the plaintiffs. Even so he becomes the world's youngest billionaire.

The thematic point of the movie is the interesting games it plays with the idea of social relations--friendship, love. The movie begins when Zuckerberg's girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) dumps him. She tells him girls will dislike him, not for being a nerd, but for being an asshole. And Zuckerberg, as portrayed in the movie, surely qualifies. (Whether the portrayal and the whole story are accurate is another matter. See the message boards on this movie at IMDb.com http://tinyurl.com/242zyll.)

The movie contrasts real social networks, friends, lovers, actual sexual relationships, Zuckerberg's relation with Erica, with the half a billion people who are "friends" on Facebook. Disclosure: I'm one of them (http://tinyurl.com/fom7b).

Throughout the movie, the relationships among the people developing Facebook take on the same ephemeral or weird quality as the relationships online. People say wrong or mean things. Zuckerberg, as portrayed in the movie, is a motormouth with a gift for--more, a delight in-- saying the wrong, antagonizing, contemptuous thing. But he is also presented as a brilliant computer nerd with 1600 SAT scores.

It seemed to me perfectly clear when I saw the movie that Zuckerberg, again, as portrayed, was a classic case of Asperger's. I was planning to post a blog on it, but while I was fooling around with Halloween pranks, the web site Autisable made the same diagnosis. http://tinyurl.com/36y5d9x. And maybe there are others out there.

The point is, our brains have an immense computational capacity, but it is, finally, finite. We have only so much brain power. Savants, my neurologist friends tell me, are people in whom one part of the brain is hugely developed and other parts become less. And the Zuckerberg of the movie looks like a savant to me.

A savant or "high-functioning patient with autistic spectrum disorder" may have incredible gifts in music, the visual arts, mathematical calculation, or memory but be totally lacking in perception of the emotions of those around him. (See that wonderful novel, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.) The Zuckerberg of the movie, I think, is just such a case.

Mark Zuckerberg

And is not the movie suggesting that our whole society, our "social network," is getting to be the same way? We have hundreds or even millions of "friends" on Facebook, but they are people whom we don't really know or have an authentic, tangible relationship with. Our iPads and iPhones and Blackberrys and all the other technological delights give us contacts with thousands of people. Thousands "hit" on this blog, for example, but with whom of you out there, do I have a real relationship? And could I tolerate real relationships with thousands of people?

And how is this affecting my brain? One part of our minds or brains is hugely developed, at least the prefrontal cortex, while another, the many systems for our relationships with others, is stunted. I spend most of my days on the computer. Are my systems for real social interaction atrophying? We get reports all the time of children who resort to bullying because they have no social skills because they have been spending all their time online. (Look at this picture of the real Mark Zuckerberg.) When I was a teenager, the long telephone call was my lifeline to my pals. But now it's Twitter and the momentary. Doesn't that change relationships? I think it does.

Can this Asperger's victim, if so he be, change your brain and mine? Is Asperger's contagious?

Five reasons why 500 million people are on facebook: What lessons for Psychology by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Ph.D. ogy?

What psychologists should learn from Facebook

Why does Facebook have 500 million users? Five answers and some lessons for psychologists:

1) Because too many people are bored at work: If managers assessed employees for what they actually do, as opposed to the time they spend at work, they would not have to worry about them spending too much time on Facebook, let alone banning Facebook at work. Unfortunately, most people hate their jobs and are only "doing the hours" - they only care about their pay and have no career; they are badly managed and not well-utilised. It is therefore susprising that Facebook doesn't have more than 500 million users - most of the remaining people in the world hate their jobs, too (and, especially, they hate their bosses).

2) Because too many people are unhappy about their love life: Some are single, others have made the wrong choice (or, at least, one that doesn't eliminate their desire to date other people). Facebook is not only an effective time-wasting device at work, it is also a hidden dating site. Indeed (if we believe The Social Network) it was created to make-up for someone's romantic failures, and its membership grew exponentially when "relationship status" was added as a key profile feature. Only Facebook may know - if not, they will work it out soon - just how many people have managed to get in touch with their school sweethearts, and there's no better place for finding anyone anywhere in the world. If the internet transforms reality into information, Facebook is a huge digital meat market.

3) Because there are too many narcissists (and even more voyeurs) in this world: Psychologists have only recently come to realise that there are many psychopaths in the normal population. But Facebook confirms that there are even more narcissistic, exhibitionistic people - why else would someone collect 1,000 "friends" and display 500 pictures of himself? This digitial showcase works well even for shy, introverted people (who would usually fail at attracting most people's attention in the world of real things). The reason why introverts can do this is that there are even more people willing to spend hours looking at stranger's pictures and profiles: "Look, Pauline has only slept 5 hours (amazing!)".

4) Because one of the main human motives is the desire to "get along": And because of that, we can only predict that there will be many more Facebook users in the near future. The desire to connect with others clearly surpasses the limits of physical interaction. In Japan and Korea people are updating their Facebook profiles and contacting other users even while having dinner or socialising with their "analogue" peers. There are already clinics dedicated exclusively to treating Facebook-addicts (people who stopped going to school, college or work, and even stopped sleeping, just in order to spend more time on Facebook).

5) Because the other main motive is to "get ahead": And this is the very reason why Facebook exists. Its founder seemed unable to get along, so he decided to get ahead instead. Many entrepreneurs have similar characteristics: they are psychopathic and anti-social, but hugely ambitious. Mark Zuckerberg couldn't get a date and barely had friends. So he decided to transform himself from techno-geek to mega-tycoon. He may not have increased his social skills, and still be a techno-geek, but his billions have probably helped him make some friends (not that he really cares about this anymore). The crucial lesson is that in achieving his personal goals, he also helped many others (500 million, but keep counting) satisfy their desire to "get ahead". People use Facebook to compete with each other: who's got more friends, and a more exciting life? This is the ultimate popularity contest.

Do you have what it takes to be the next Mark Zuckerberg? Find out here!