May 5, 2015
Parental Guidence
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Parental Guidence
What happens at Work, stays at Work
When a person enters the workplace they really should leave personal issues at home. As soon as a person enters the door they should change their mind set and transform into work mode. When at work many people have access to a computer, and if necessary, the internet. Using the internet could even be part of the job. Personally when I use the company computer it’s to do payroll, type up a schedule or to email customers. The internet doesn't exactly make it easy to concentrate on work and it’s very easy to be distracted. With all the advertisements that pop up or the temptation of Facebook, all it takes is one click of a button. With more businesses using social media for promotion it really doesn't help the issue. In The Circle, written by Dave Egger’s, Mae uses up to seven different computers at one time. All these screens pertain to her job. At least if she gets distracted by a screen other than her main priority, it’s related to work. Anything she posts during this time is visible to everyone in the Circle. Although it is convenient this is not the time or place to check private emails, or even bank accounts, unless an employee doesn't mind this information to become public knowledge.
With so many users having access it is really easy for someone to obtain personal data. If someone hacks into the computer and steals private information, this is not the responsibility of the employer. Imagine the employer has full access to view anything you have looked at or researched. Depending on what a person searched for or clicked on, it may be detrimental to the functionality of the program. When the computer I used at work started to act funny I decided to call a technician. He determined that somehow a virus had made its way into the computer and ended up costing the company a lot of money to fix. The technician was also able to tell the employer what website caused the crash. Believe it or not it was Facebook. Although the owners understood that Facebook is used to promote the business, they were still not pleased with what happened. How do they know it wasn't being used for personal use?
Employees should be monitored simply for the risk and damage they could potentially cause. Even if they are considered trustworthy, costly accidents can happen. People are human and no one is innocent. If a person believes it is acceptable to spend work time looking at private messages, these conversations should be available for the employer to review.
In an article written about privacy in 2011, author Chris Petersen claims “Employee Monitoring Is Necessary.” He believes this to be a necessity because it protects the interests of the company. It can also help with productivity and focus. I agree with Petersen because I am guilty of sometimes getting distracted while using the company computer. I may being using it to purchase work shoes or doing so after hours, I’m still opening a door for potential hackers. Although I may not feel I am hurting my work, I’m sure not helping either. It’s natural for employers to be curious about what their workers are viewing. According the article a 2007 survey revealed that “Nearly 30 percent of employers have fired someone for reasons including visiting Web sites with inappropriate content, sending personal e-mails or breaching confidentiality rules. Employees should be more aware and assume anytime they use electronic resources provided by the company, there is no privacy.
Employees can be monitored without feeling invaded. An article written by Jeffery L. Seglin for The New York Times addresses concerns and assures there is a proper practice. He claims surveillance in the workplace and routine snooping is no longer a threat but a fact. Employees who don’t like to be watched shouldn't work for a place that utilizes camera’s. Seglin also says that factors like fear of sexual harassment litigation, lost employee productivity and theft of data software have swamped any hesitations about privacy. As a person who has worked for numerous companies that uses cameras for safety, I can say they have been extremely beneficial. The camera system they use has been able to catch a couple thieves, as well as hold people responsible for negative actions. The company has been able to save video clips on a flash drive in order to help the police build a case. An employee who was stealing could not lie about it because he was clearly caught on camera. Another incident involved wasting thousands of dollars of food due to carelessness of an employee. Because the company had cameras set up they were able to figure out who it was and hold them accountable. There should be a set of rules or ethics set up to describe how the cameras will be used. If employees are made aware that they are working under these conditions, it is up to them to make the right choices. These are only a couple ways employee monitoring is beneficial. If people can keep work separate from home and think before they act, nothing bad can come from this. Employee monitoring can be considered a necessary evil and play a significant role in a professional business.
Works Cited
Seglin, Jeffrey L. "As office snooping grows, who watches the watchers?" New York Times 18 June 2000: BU4(N); BU4(L). Global Issues In Context. Web. 3 May 2015.
Petersen, Chris. "Employee Monitoring Is Necessary." Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Who's Watching You? Internet Monitoring in the Workplace Is Not Only Common, It's Necessary." US Business Review 9 (2008): 6-7. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 May 2015.
The Effects of Social Media on Marriages/Relationships
Around the globe, ‘Facebook users spend approximately 10.5 billion minutes each day surfing the site, not to include mobile usage. As a whole, that is nearly 20 years per day spent in a virtual world instead of offline.’ And in a survey conducted by Badoo, another social site, it was found that ‘approximately 39% of Americans spend more time socializing online than in person’, according to the article by Sam Laird, Is Social Media Destroying Real-World Relationships? It is hard for me to fathom that incredible amount of time spent in a room at a desk, or lounging with a laptop as opposed to enjoying the blessings of an outside life. But lately it has become more commonplace for people to communicate online or through text than face-to-face. This is just like Mae in The Circle, who spends all day long with some sort of social media technology so close to her that you would think it is a part of her own body. And then when it comes time to leave work and go to a social event, she has nowhere near the normal interaction with friends, family, co-workers or even sexual partners as she does with people through the internet. Not to mention that on a few occasions, her sexual escapades started with the use of some sort of ‘connected’ equipment. Most notably, her relationship with Kalden/Ty, if you would call it that. Then comes the embarrassment provided by the TruYou program in which she felt did not paint a good social picture of Mae due to information being left out or being inaccurate. Now I am not saying that social media is totally bad for relationships, but there is an overwhelming amount of bad situations or strain that a relationship will go through due to Facebook, Twitter, Plenty of Fish and the like.
These types of sites have a high potential for jealousy of the significant other, possibly because there is someone from either side’s ‘past’ and there is always that fear of some sort of infidelity or off-color scenario playing out. Or it could simply be one side or the other reading more into it than they should, in which a multitude of crazy theories manifest themselves. Similar to Mae’s thoughts when she hadn’t heard from or seen Kalden in quite some time. All too often, and quite a bit personally, I have seen relationships go absolutely haywire because of a conversation had on Facebook, or a similar site. And sometimes it doesn’t even have to be a conversation, it could be a comment or a sarcastic post with maybe a slight sexual innuendo, and it’s all over from there. WW3 starts, probably by some sort of nasty name calling because of a misunderstanding of the situation, when all that had to be done was talk about it in an adult manner. But then I think that stems from a trust issue as well, or some sort of insecurity.
Now I am not always saying that there is no one at fault, because there are plenty of people that aren’t satisfied and the want to ‘play the field’, sort of like Mae was doing between Francis and Kalden. If you are the type to ‘have your cake and eat it too’, well then you deserve what comes from that. And you should never think that you won’t get caught, sooner or later it will come back to bite you in the ass. It is called a social network for a reason, and 90% of the time, there is someone who knows what is going on, and is a mutual friend who will call it how it is. Plus that stuff doesn’t just go away, there is always a trail of some kind where the damning information can be found. Like when a certain picture or video feed of Mae in a very compromising position was captured. That was out there for the world to see, if you knew where to look.
I am a firm believer in the fact that there shouldn’t be any secrets when you are with someone, and it seems that these days, the so-called ‘Facebook secrets’ are the ones that will bring down a relationship in a heartbeat.
Now I am not saying delete your Facebook or Twitter account once you are with someone, that will just look suspicious for one side or the other. Just be up front and honest. Have the guts to tell the truth to him or her. Also, if they don’t know already(which if they are any kind of friend, they already will), tell them that conversations like that cannot happen. Going back to the fact that if they are any kind of friend, they will understand and respect you for that. These are just a few of the pitfalls, whether purposely or not, that people fall into when it comes to conversations/social interaction on social media that will put strain on a marriage or relationship. So just communicate with your husband, wife, girl/boyfriend and don’t leave them with questions like that. It’s not a hard thing to do, furthermore, if you aren’t ready to be committed to that person…then why are you in a relationship anyway? Clearly you aren’t ready or can’t handle one at this point.
Lastly, why not spend more time offline and meet people face-to-face? Then you can see them as they are and be with them as you should be and/or them for you. In the words of the following video...LOOK UP.
Research Sources:
The Circle, by Dave Eggers
Is Social Media Destroying Real-World Relationships?, by Sam Laird
Facebook Relationship Problems: How Social Networking And Jealousy Affect Your Love Life, Katherine Bindley
Location, Location, Location
Everyone likes their privacy as long as it’s convenient for them. People enjoy the many benefits of being able to access information almost immediately. Not many people like it when they are being the ones searched for or followed. One aspect of privacy that people often ignore is locational privacy. People never know when they are being watched. It’s so easy to find information about a person and where they spend their time throughout a day. Is it logic, habit or a unique set of algorithms? It could simply be that we share more with the public than we want to take credit for. How many times do we check-in to a location without realizing that people are paying attention? Recently I took a road trip to visit my parents and drove from South Carolina to Massachusetts. Along the way I noticed that strangers could observe my actions any which way they wanted to. It happened several times throughout my drive. Being made aware of technological advances has really opened my eyes. The theme of locational privacy and its results, is explored throughout a book called The Circle by Dave Eggers. Although it’s a fictional novel it’s relevant to society and what’s happening in the world today. If people go about their normal routines and do no wrong, it shouldn't matter if they’re being recorded…does it?
During my travels I needed directions and when I tried to use my phone for navigation it wanted permission to access my location. I instinctively hit “Agree” because I was so eager for results it didn't matter what the privacy policy actually consisted of. My mind began to consider that besides draining the battery faster, what else is it taking away? When giving permission a person is allowing websites consent to track their approximate location. Many people have used this application before and probably have never thought twice. This application allows more than just access to directions. Any post on Facebook during that time can recognize the city a person is currently in and attach it to a status. Before you know it all 800 friends can know where a person is and when. This makes it hard to avoid people, lie about being late or to be left alone altogether.
The second part of the trip involved stopping to use the restroom. Nothing was out of the ordinary about this stop, it was just a typical Grab-n-Go gas station. When I obtained the key to the outside restroom I looked up and notice a small round bulb against the building. It was clearly a security camera. This may have been put in place for my protection or for the store owners. Were they watching to see if I was going in alone? When I returned the key I realized it was a live feed that was easily visible on a live screen. We continued on our journey and eventually had to stop again. This time the rest stop was along the highway where they had picnic tables and vending machines set up. When I stepped out of the car I noticed a huge sign standing alone in the middle of the picnic tables. It’s was hard to miss the sign as it was black and white with huge letters reading “WARNING- THIS AREA SUBJECT TO SURVEILLANCE.” It seemed strange that people would announce it so boldly. I felt maybe this was put in place because of a previous event or to prevent people from doing illegal things in public. I looked around to see if I could clearly see a camera but did not. At least it warned the public to be careful of their actions as they may be recorded.
Awareness is the most tremendous gain that a person can receive from reading The Circle. In the novel the main character, Mae, works for a large company that requires her to participate in a type of networking community. Her participation is ranked as she takes photos at parties she attends and shares them online. This lets everyone in the company know where she is, how long she was there and who she spent time with. It allows everyone involved to live through her experiences. By everyone I mean millions of people. They don’t view this as an invasion of privacy. The company actually frowns upon people who don’t share what they enjoy doing. Mae travels home once in a while to visit her parents who live off campus a couple hours away. Even though it’s a long drive she doesn’t mind because along the way there is a place to rent kayaks if she chooses take a break. Mae loves to kayak as she finds it relaxing. One day she stopped but they were closed. She took it upon herself to borrow one that was leaning against the outside of the fence. She did not realize they had “SeeChange” cameras set up and they caught her red handed. The cameras captured her movements as she hesitated, with her legs partially in the water. Her punishment involved bringing awareness to poor decision making. It also made her rethink her actions, and even though she knew it was stealing, she still made the wrong choice. It is rare for Mae to be able to do anything, without it easily being known by the millions of people within the Circle. Privacy doesn't exist in public locations anymore.
The theme of location and privacy is very much present in an article found in The New York Times. It addresses all the ways we make our whereabouts public knowledge. The article is titled “A casualty of the technology revolution: ‘locational privacy’” and written by Adam Cohen. He describes a day where he simply checks emails, rides a train, and goes to the gym. Cohen states that his actions weren't secret to begin with but it was way too easy for someone to track him. All he did was sign into his email, swipe his membership card and purchase train tickets. These actions were logged at specific times and recorded. Cohen claims our movements are not private and haven’t been even during low-tech days. The part of the article that jumped out at me is the mention of EZ Passes. As I traveled on several toll roads, I thought about how the department of transportation actually takes a picture of a person as they are driving through. Looking back I realized I chose to slow down and not speed, due to the cameras observing my vehicle. I also chose not to switch lanes over a bridge just because you weren't supposed to. These laws were put in place for protection, but when does it become too much? Like I've mentioned before the public enjoys having these extra pair of eyes until the attention is solely on them. I agree with Cohen that “data should be erased as soon as its main purpose is met.” Although I’m a person who enjoys the many benefits of having a cell phone, I also agree with Cohen that an application needs to know WHERE people are, not WHO people are.
For the time being the public will continue to use many services that sacrifice their privacy. Some may say there are ways around it or settings that they can adjust. These options may available for now, but one day people won’t be able to be incognito. It’s incredible to think that sometime in the future people won’t have the choice to hide anything. The Circle may be based on utopia but in reality is not far fetched. Technology plays a larger role in the way humans live their lives. More recently people have been discussing privacy in public involving technology and the issues it has already developed. Even though these issues seem manageable now, I can only imagine what the world will be facing in the years to come.
Works Cited
Cohen, Adam. "A casualty of the technology revolution: 'locational privacy'." New York Times 1 Sept. 2009: A28(L). Global Issues In Context. Web. 15 April 2015.
Social Media and Its Psychological Effects
Today, social media has become a huge part of our lives. Whether it is reconnecting with distant family or friends, allowing for new acquaintances/relationships to be started, or even just to have passing conversations with people far away that we may not otherwise have any communication with normally. But what happens when these programs are not available due to a computer/cell phone malfunction, internet being unavailable or just simply that social media site is down for routine maintenance?
‘Recent studies show that the internet/social media makes up such a large part of our daily lives, that when it is unavailable for even a short amount of time, there is a profound negative effect’. Some of these effects are a ‘decrease in levels of happiness, the feeling of being left out/behind’. We are so used to being ‘connected’ at all times that when there is ‘deprivation for any length of time, it is said to create negative emotional feelings when online access is unavailable’. This recent psychological research which is published in the Public Library of Science ONE has termed this negative response as ‘Disconnect Anxiety’.
This is shown quite a few times during Eggers’ novel, The Circle. More specifically when Mae’s voice/video feed goes inactive for whatever reason, her followers seem to become either concerned or agitated. To me, those scenarios describe this type of anxiety quite clearly. Most social media sites have also inadvertently become a ‘mirror against which we unconsciously measure/determine our own sense of worth’. The constant connection is a portal through which we share all sorts of happenings in our daily lives whether it is insignificant or a really big deal. The need for instant feedback or gratification seems to be like a drug for some people and when that ‘drug’ is not available, these people freak out or go through very pronounced symptoms of withdrawal. Currently, over ‘73% of adults online use some form of social networking site’. And those numbers continue to increase, much like the growing number of people in Eggers’ novel who become Circle users. They feel the only way associate with others is through the internet when in actuality ‘they have made their interactions with other people impersonal, and a distancing phenomena is taking place’.
Furthermore, most people do things or act in ways that they normally wouldn’t in the ‘real’ world. Whether it be cyber-bullying or infidelity or the multitude of other less-than-pleasant actions that can occur. These people do this because most of the time they can get away without consequence. At least they could up until recently. These different or abnormal actions that are presented calls to mind when Mae ‘borrowed’ the canoe but didn’t realize there was a SeeChange camera that captured her every move. Much like the cyber-bullies, I believe Mae would not have done this if she had an idea that she would be seen or caught. But then there are some social media users that have such clouded judgement that they don’t think about the harm that they are causing, or worse yet, they do not care. And finally, when all of this anxiety becomes too much for that person and they ‘unplug’ for a few days or whatever length of time, they have the online ‘friends’, or should I say, addicts worrying about them. Which is mostly why they return to their previous ways because they either don’t want to worry anyone, or the absence of those people is too much for them to bear. My thoughts on this whole ‘addiction’ is that there is far too much going on in the world and through life to be constantly living in a fake world. Yes, in moderation, being on the internet/social media can be good. But not when psychological effects like this rear their ugly heads due to extreme usage. If only these social media junkies would realize this, they would be in a much better state of mind.
Research Sources:
The Circle, Dave Eggers
Social Media and Its Effects On Our Emotional Well-Being, Alex Beattie
Psychologist: Social Media Causing A ‘Distancing Phenomena’ To Take Place, Regina F. Graham
Technology/Social Media, and its Impact on Human Interaction & Everyday Life
Since the dawn of the human race, there has always been the drive to be more efficient. With today’s technological advances, the previous statement could not be more true. From robotics on assembly lines in automobile manufacturing plants, and in major hospital operating rooms, to our interaction with other human beings, technology seems to have invaded every facet of our lives. This invasion, in a lot of ways has made life a bit easier, but in certain aspects has it gone too far? For example, in the world of social media. Social media is definitely a great way to communicate with those that you haven’t seen in years, i.e. high school. Or even to reach those that are not always easily reachable, in this case, deployed military. Now this sort of interaction is absolutely wonderful, but when it comes to things like online dating/relationships, I believe it can be quite the opposite.
‘Studies have shown that social media has become more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol’, as explained in an article from DigitalFire entitled “How Social Media Has Affected Human Interaction”. In this same article, they allude to the fact that people have become ‘alienated from events as they happen in real time’. They are so caught up in documenting the event, that they miss out on the actual experience. This was shown very clearly in The Circle at numerous points. It was like every waking moment of a Circler’s day should to be documented. And if it was not, people grew suspicious, as shown early on in the book when Mae was in her first few weeks at The Circle. Furthermore, in regards to social media or online dating sites, there has been a rapid decline in the ‘face-to-face’ interactions, as well as countless failed relationships due to use/misuse of social media. ‘While there are many positive outcomes are associated with cyber communication, some individuals experience negative consequences’ as briefly outlined in the 27 August 2013 edition of the Clinical Social Work Journal article “Technology, Relationships and Culture: Clinical and Theoretical Implications”.
As a user of social media; namely Facebook, SnapChat and on occasion, Twitter. As well as the recent use of online dating sites like POF(Plenty of Fish), I have seen many profiles that are so far off from the actual person, that it makes you question the honesty of every single user of those sites. What ever happened to just meeting people through everyday travels, like before the times of social media and the internet? My thoughts in regards to this question are that in many situations, people just don’t have the time for that ‘old school’ way anymore. Whether it be because of work/school schedules, single-parent responsibilities, various family situations and the list goes on. So these sites offer a bit of convenience in this aspect of life, but sometimes not for the better. So in the end, social media for the most part is a great thing, but it does have its drawbacks as well. In light of the negative aspects, I believe people shouldn’t be so reliant on it. Get out into the world and experience it first-hand, not through a screen! Cultivate new relationships, in whatever capacity, and without the use of so much social media.
Reference Sources:
The Circle, Dave Eggers
How Social Media Has Affected Human Interaction
Technology, Relationships and Culture: Clinical and Theoretical Implications, Karen Zilberstein
To Harm or Not To Harm?
I believe that the concept behind The Circle’s need to know everything raises too many ethical concerns. This topic is extremely controversial because the creation of laws on the matter will change lives. To understand why this is such an ethical issue, we must further define ethics. Ethics is the study of what is right versus wrong behavior. We must all arrive at a common ground in order to come to one conclusion. The government wanted to be more like the circle. They wanted to allow technology to act as a window into everyone’s personal life. I am questioning whether this idea would pass in real life. Is this concept morally “right.” Lawmakers today would realize that allowing one company to monopolize all resources goes against what our country stands for.
I am arguing that our personal lives should be private. We should not be followed by our peers. We should be able to have private moments without a camera following our every move. We should make our own decisions about what is shared with others. Many times, we try to blend in. We follow societal trends. We, as human beings are natural born followers. The Circle is a trend. Today, it would be seen as an invasion of privacy. However, because humans enjoy to act like their peers, they would definitely adopt the new technologies. The rulers of a society should realize the poison that over-sharing possesses. The rulers of a society should follow the normative ethics principal.
Normative ethics tries to arrive at moral standards that regulate right versus wrong. Do the ends justify the means? Would the end result of creating a uniform technology driven society outweigh the possibilities of knowing everything about our neighbors? Yes. The idea of utilitarianism states that ethics theories arrive at what is best for the greatest number of people.
Exploring further into the question of “right” versus “wrong,” we must look to John Stuart Mills. His work, The Harm Principal states that our government can only pass legislation limiting our freedom if we are actually harming someone else. Through invasive technology practices, our freedoms are being limited. According to Mills, it would be corrupt to allow such limitations.
Ethical reasoning is moving in a forward direction. Ethics is the study of what is right and what is wrong behavior. Law makers feel the need to regulate or ban certain trends if they do not point due north of a moral compass. Specifically, normative ethics is a theory that tries to drive at moral standards that regulate right and wrong behavior. Who is to decide what is moral behavior and what is immoral behavior? In The Circle, there were not many people opposed to the idea of sharing all knowledge via technology. Not many people determined right from wrong. Deontological ethics refers to the duties and rights of human beings. It is a government’s duty to keep current on technology and share safe methods to better populations. In fact, utilitarianism describes the best actions taken for the greatest amount of people. Now, since the progression of ethical reasoning, ethic boards have been put into place to maintain safe technology practices and procedures. Ethicists combat each other’s opinions until deciding on the safest practices. They have been created as the best solution for differing views on the subject of over-sharing. I believe that we should not over-share. We should not know everything. Like Eggers, I believe that “We are not meant to know everything, …that perhaps our minds are delicately calibrated between the known and the unknown? That our souls need the mysteries of night and the clarity of day (Eggers 322).
Ethical concerns are relevant to any topic involving the creation of laws. Laws are set into place to ensure that the masses are practicing morally correct behavior. What would be appropriate moral conduct for over-sharing our personal lives? The woman’s experience should be the moral theory that this topic is judged upon. It states that it is only appropriate to care for every situation as a “unique circumstance.” Law makers must take a care-based approach to arrive at the best ruling. They must understand that every person is not comfortable sharing and learning about each other’s personal lives. They must understand that this advancement of technology could worsen communication of the entire human race. Face-to-face communication and interactions as we know it would be different. I for one, would hate to live in a society that accepted The Circle’s practices. I would hope that lawmakers in the book’s society would revert back to simple communication and sharing.
Mill, J.S., 1978. On Liberty, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freedom-speech/#JohStuMilHarPri
Fieser, James. Ethics. Internet Encyclopedia of Ethics. Retrieved from www.iep.utm.edu/ethic
Hall of Mirrors
The Circle depicts a world not too far from the one that we live in now. What makes this book so chilling to me is that is almost as if it could be true. Maybe this text is some type of prophecy sent to us to warn us of what is to come. I cant help to make the connections from what Eggers describes The Circle to be to the many agencies and companies that exist around the world we actually live in. Companies like Google, FaceBook, and Twitter have changed how people experience life and the world forever. They have made it so, much like how Eggers describes the intentions of The Circle, that anyone can have the tools to know anything about everything. The Circle takes it a step further and makes plans to basically track and record everything that goes on in people’s lives. The heads of the company, which Eggers names The Wise Men, believe that this unabridged collection of data could help sort out truth from fiction. Maybe it would stop wars from happening, but I am not willing to give up my right of privacy. The belief that every aspect of our life could be recorded, or transparent so to say, and stored to be referenced to at anytime in the future may have many positive effects, but if you look at some of the things that go on in Dave Eggers’ book The Circle a lot of the negative contingencies show their face. This alternative society of total transparency that The Circle represents in the book would strip all people of some very essential human rights.
This type of society where everyone is put on surveillance like The Circle does in the book would reduce privacy to an absolute zero. Imagine: cops, your girlfriend, boyfriend, mom and dad, practically everyone could look at a catalog of all your movements at any specific point in time. Constantly under the microscope that many are blind to see.
I believe that many citizens of America could not go “transparent" like Mae and the dozen or so politicians that participated in The Circle’s experiment. I find myself to be more of a Mercer type of character. I believe that technology is a great benefactor to our society, and yes technology could help us understand and alleviate many of the problems we face in mankind. But there is a question of when is there too much. Ty one of the creators of the Circle, Ty, conspires to ruin The Circle by writing a sort of PSA discussing that al people, “must of the right to anonymity” (Eggers 490). What he means by this is that everyone should have the right to privacy. He brings up a few other points that reveals the demise of life as we know it if this societal transparency takes effect. Maybe it would decrease crime and violence if we had a camera on every corner, but it wouldn't eliminate it. Bad people are going to always to do bad things. The fact that everyone knows that they are being watched would force them to live in fear of falling outside the lines of the rules, instead of them consciously knowing what is right and wrong. Steven Kurlander points out in his article Technology Drives Advances in Domestic Surveillance that we live in a world, “where every movement we make and every communication we engage in can be easily tracked by the government, the cell phone provider—and each other” (Kurlander). So then we are left with a society that doesn't think for themselves, but only thinks of the consequences of any move they make. Some may think that this will make people stay in line more often than not, but that doesn't mean that this is the “TrueYou”. You would be the product of a society that scrutinizes and judges people outside of the lines of “the circle”.
Steven Kurlander also discusses in his article that this type of surveillance is everywhere, “We walk Main Street that are monitored by cameras. We work at computer terminals that allow our bosses to monitor [us]… and we use social media and search engines that can track our usage and establish personality profiles to sell and share” (Kurlander). You may not think of each click of your mouse or swipe of your touch screen as a piece of data that someone is closely analyzing and sharing or selling that information to major corporations. The Circle believes that, “privacy is theft” (Eggers 305), when in reality most people would think transparency is theft of privacy. Privacy is the right to have secrets, to have a personal life, to be human. We all have secrets behind closed doors and we have a right to these as humans. This should worry all of us, because we aren't that far away from what The Circle proposes in this book. Its not just the companies that start up these data hogs, but also the consumers of the services they provide. We are so quick to feed into the newest app or the newest social media site. Many never stop and think what they are actually signing up for.