The Circle

#TheCircle102S05

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Click To Share (1)

How many times a day do you share on social media? Whether it is your post, a friend’s post, or a post that has gone viral, sharing allows your followers to get a glimpse of the person you are and the things that interest you. There are times when you scroll through a news feed and read an article someone has shared about another person’s fight with cancer, which leads to an outpouring of love and support shown through comments and online connections all throughout the world. Even something as simple as going to the Grand Canyon and posting pictures could interest those who have never been before. The ability to be able to share with others is something that should not be taken for granted. Sharing is caring.

The Circle by Dave Eggers introduces us to a 24-year-old girl named Mae Holland. Her life changed in an instant after being hired at one of the most powerful technology companies in the world called The Circle. Based in the near future, The Circle is a fictionalized Google created by “The Three Wise Men”. The company it’s first breakthrough with a program that combines all of a person’s medical information, social media, banking, etc. and links it to one single online identity known as TruYou, which is growing to contain virtually all information that exists across the world. With over 10,000 employees The Circle’s mission is to innovate and create a more accountable society by fully believing in transparency and truth. A major theme that is important at The Circle is “Sharing Is Caring”. “If you care about your fellow human beings, you share what you know with them”(The Circle, 304). When given the opportunity to post about who we are, what we are interested in and what goes on in our daily lives, it is only fair to give our friends and followers what they want. For example, if we know a friend is going to a concert and we check Snapchat to find no videos being posted, it is like it didn’t happen. If we don’t share our experiences with our followers what is the point of having social media any way?  

Though many people think of social media as a sick disease that is taking over our daily lives. There are benefits and amazing outcomes when it comes to sharing online. Psychologist Emma Kelly says, “Writing about experiences provides some connection. The act of writing down an experience is massively cathartic in itself and can help gain a sense of control. When we share personal details there is an element of response-seeking involved -- if we share sad news we require empathy and others sharing their own stories”(The London Evening Standard). Online sharing can lead to global caring. With social media being such a huge part of our lives, it is only fitting that sharing something online can be extremely successful in ways of finding those who can relate, help, listen, or simply enjoy with what you have to say. Sharing also gives you the power to connect and share experiences with those that may not have the opportunity to experience some of the things you experience. “When one person shares their experience it gives others permission to feel the same and talk about it”(The London Evening Standard).

Though The Circle can take technology and social media to the extreme, they do have it right when it comes to “Sharing Is Caring”. You never know the impact you may have one someone simply by sharing, whether it is funny and could make someone’s day or it is touching and could change someone’s life. “Technology can make us feel out of control but this reclaims it, using it to tell your story how and when you want to”(The London Evening Standard). Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage, 2013. Print.

"When online sharing leads to global caring; Spreading our news on social media is both cathartic and a powerful tool."London Evening Standard [London, England] 5 Aug. 2015: 21. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

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The Lonely Network (2)

I currently have 1,827 Facebook friends, 882 Instagram followers, and almost 400 people following me on Twitter. They like my pictures, comment on my posts, and retweet my hilarious, judgmental tweets about The Kardashians. Social media “connects” us; online we are the best of friends. Offline, however, I spotted one of my followers in Target (whom I had never actually met) and I started experiencing anxiety thinking about an awkward human interaction. Unfortunately, I couldn’t double tap the cute dress in her shopping cart and keep walking past. So, what did I do? I panicked, made a sharp right onto aisle five, and pretended to look at dog food for a dog I don’t even have. I avoided her because in reality, she is not my friend. I do not know her. Just because we are friends on Facebook and it is easy to click the like button does not mean we are friends in real life.  The impact social media has on our generation ultimately disconnects us from reality.

Mae Holland is a perfect example of one who has allowed social media to consume her. Communication at The Circle is based on social interactions; involving yourself with others by communicating online, sharing feedback, talking with complete strangers as if they were your friends. There are many advantages to this type of interaction, but when it begins to interfere with the actual people that are physically sitting right in front of you, it can be offensive and rude. The fact that two people can’t sit down and have dinner together without scrolling through their phones or go to a concert without recording the entire thing instead of enjoying the experience just shows how out of touch with reality we truly are.

Throughout the book, Mercer symbolizes Mae’s reality check. He continues to attempt to pull Mae out of the “cult” that is The Circle and bring her back to life. “You no longer pick up on basic human communication clues. You’re at a table with three humans, all of whom are looking at you and trying to talk to you, and you’re staring at a screen, searching for strangers in Dubai… Here’s the thing, and it’s painful to say this to you. But you’re not very interesting anymore. You sit at a desk twelve hours a day and you have nothing to show for it except for some numbers that won’t exist or be remembered in a week. You’re leaving no evidence that you lived”(The Circle, 282). The opinion of those that care for her, like Mercer, couldn’t mean less to Mae when compared to the opinion of those online. After a survey taken at The Circle, there were 300 people who voted Mae was not awesome. Her self confidence was down, she was angry, and she cared more about those 300 “dislikes” instead of opinion and dislikes coming from her own friends and family. In the end, this causes Mae to lose the real relationships in her life. The Circle and social media became more important than who she truly was. Mae not only lost Mercer and her parents, she lost sight of who she was before her life existed online.

Mae was a local celebrity at The Circle. She had all of these people who were in awe of who she was and what she meant to the company. But, at the end of the day Mae never truly made a real friendship with any of her 10,000 coworkers. She was settling for people like Francis and Kalden, the only two people she had real interaction with outside of social media. Not only does this happen to Mae, but it happens to those in real life as well. In an article written about 28 year old Walter Piper, he experiences a situation similar to Mae’s. He has no real friends due to of lack of social communication outside of his social media. “Piper, despite having more than 300 friends on Facebook, found himself in a predicament shared by many millennials: He had no real friends to hang out with”(New York Post). This generation consumes their time with social media. It is all most people know. Human interaction is becoming harder and harder to achieve. Two people can’t go out to dinner without one of them having their phone’s stuck in their face. Physically, that person is there; mentally the other person might as well be eating alone.

Pauline Wanjiku a counselor and sociology student reveals, "In a way, human contact is being replaced by electronic communication. People express themselves through posts, tweets, updates and blogs but not verbally. Facial expressions and other non-verbal communication forms don't count much. Forging relationships and making decisions is at times based on phrases or emoticons. It is not my place to say which is better but in a way it is quantity versus quality. Face to face communication is quality”(Wanjiku). We become so wrapped up in the world that is social media, we begin to doubt ourselves and question our self-worth. We depend on the amount of likes we get on the picture we post and take it down if we aren’t satisfied with the number. It becomes an obsession; communication and approval from strangers that are our “friends” on Facebook that have nothing to do with us in real life. In the end, this network that allows people to “connect” only leaves us with loneliness. The more popular you are online, the more disconnected you are with what is going on around you.

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage, 2013. Print.

"I CAN'T FRIEND FOR MYSELF Millennials have hundreds of pals online but nobody to hang out with in real life." New York Post [New York, NY] 2 Sept. 2015: 033. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

"Social Media - Is It Killing Real Life Human Ties and Interactions? [analysis]." Africa News Service 9 Aug. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

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This User Is Private (3)

We live in a generation where the Internet allows us to FBI (Facebook Investigate) to get the information we need to know about others. We stalk, creep, snoop through people’s timelines and learn every detail about a person’s life in 20 minutes. We know whom they dated in 2011, where they went for spring break in 2006, and that they had Outback for dinner at 6:43 on Friday. We depend on social media posts to inform us where a person is, what they are doing, and who they are with. We have become obsessed with knowing. We fear the unknown. There is nothing more discouraging than clicking on someone’s Instagram and receiving the message “this user is private” on their profile. Or finding a picture your ex recently posted on a ski trip in Lake Tahoe, and not tagging the people he is with. Our generation feels deprived of any information we can’t access on social media; privacy online is unacceptable.

According to The Circle, “Privacy Is Theft”. The frustration of not knowing plays a huge role throughout the book and in our daily lives as well. If someone meets a cute guy and goes home only to find he doesn’t have a Facebook you can investigate, we become annoyed and irritated. This kind of situation is similar to Mae’s frustration and anger when she is not able to look up Kalden on any social media outlet. “Mae cursed the not-knowing, and knew she needed someone who could be known. Who could be located”(The Circle, 197). She feels betrayed and left out in the dark not being about to research and find out information about this mysterious person she keeps encountering.

Cyber-stalking has become a second nature to us. We are obsessed with investigating other people and getting in their minds through social media. Virginia Blackburn at the Spectator says, “It's become a given: we are all stalkers now. Thanks to Google, Twitter, Facebook and the fact that absolutely nobody seems to have the faintest idea about privacy settings, it is easier to keep track of people on the other side of the world than ever it was to snoop on a village neighbor from behind the safety of a lace curtain”(The Spectator). As a generation we are eager to dig into the minds of what others are thinking. We have to know everything about everyone. If someone posts a cryptic depressing love quote on Instagram, automatically we start snooping around trying to figure out whom that quote is directed to. Withholding information from your friends or followers is basically stealing from them. If you are their friend on Facebook, they have a right to know whom you are talking about. This is the way our minds work.

At the end of the book, Eggers has a chilling way to bring this reality to light. As Mae sits and watches her best friend, Annie, as she lays in the hospital bed unconscious, the only thing she can think about is exactly what is on her mind. “Another burst of color appeared on the screen monitoring the workings of Annie’s mind. What was going on in that head of hers? It was exasperating really, Mae thought, not knowing. It was an affront, a deprivation, to herself and to the world. She would bring this up with Stenton and Bailey, with the Gang of 40, at the earliest opportunity. They needed to talk about Annie, the thoughts she was thinking. Why shouldn’t they know them? The world deserved nothing less and would not wait”(The Circle, 497).

Privacy is theft. All that happens must be known.

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage, 2013. Print.

Blackburn, Virginia. "The friends of others: Everyone you know is stalking everyone else you know--even if they don't know each other." Spectator 7 Dec. 2013: 14. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.