The Circle, one of the most powerful internet company hires a woman in her mid-twenties called Mae Holland. On her first day at work, Mae marvels at almost everything in the company, “my God, Mae thought. It’s heaven,” (Eggers 1). Mae feels she has been given an opportunity of a lifetime to work in this company that connects everyone and everything to a single network where they can be monitored. The circle seeks to create a utopian society where no one hides anything, "All that happens must be known," (Eggers 35). The Circle achieves this by using small self-powered cameras with the ability to produce high definition (HD) outputs and ingestible trackers which can track people at any given moment. Mae also becomes a victim of the Circle's privacy intrusion when she was filmed without her permission but could not get the video deleted (Eggers 112). The Circle makes me think about Facebook and Google and how they invade people’s privacy while using the internet. I can relate the Circle with the today’s Google.
According to Mercer Medeiros, social media is like snack foods. It has changed human interaction and connection to just the shadow of what it was before. It like a man eating a full bag of chips then hates himself since he knows he has done nothing good for himself (Eggers 72). This is the same feeling that the social media has on people, one feels hollow, diminished and wasted after a digital binge (Eggers 72). I feel that Mercer is indirectly talking about Facebook. According to Mercer, the Circle isn't helping people by creating connecting among people but what it really does is making people crave for real connections even more. Facebook might make people all over the world feel connected but critically, real connection and in-person interaction are lost. In the beginning, the book is fun and enjoyable as Mae is introduced into the Circle and her interaction with the entire company at first is enjoyable to imagine in real life. However, as the book progresses any fun and enjoyment drips away as further details of Mae's relations with the Circle is revealed. I am skeptical about the role of technology in people's lives and I don't approach the technology with joy and enjoyment I had at the beginning of the novel.
Work Cited
Eggers, Dave. "The Circle. New York: Alfred A." (2013).
