Social Media at its best ... or it’s worst The Circle by Dave Eggers

Synopsis

Mae Holland, a recent college graduate, lands a job at The Circle, a powerful technology company run by the "Three Wise Men." Mae owes her job largely to her best friend and college roommate, Annie, one of the forty most influential people in the company. Mae starts out in Customer Experience (CE), the firm's customer service department, but quickly climbs the company ladder. From the beginning, Mae is impressed by amenities at The Circle, including access to top-notch technology, dorm-like housing, gyms, recreation activities and parties. Mae's very first day at The Circle ends with a party where she encounters Francis, who remains a love interest throughout the rest of the novel. Later, Mae encounters and quickly becomes romantically involved with a mysterious colleague named Kalden, even though she is unable to verify his status at the company, or even obtain his last name. Meanwhile, The Circle continues to develop a range of sophisticated technologies, including SeeChange: light, portable cameras that can provide real-time video with minimal effort. Eventually, SeeChange cameras are worn all day long by politicians wishing to be 'transparent', allowing the public to see what they are seeing at all times.

Another subplot is the diagnosis of Mae's father w which eventually leads Mae to enroll her parents on her healthcare, which in turn drives them to install SeeChange cameras in their home. After a brief incident with her own legal issues, Mae ends up agreeing to wear a SeeChange device herself (called going transparent), representing her own growing role in the company, epitomized by a public talk in which she insists, "secrets are lies," "sharing is caring," and "privacy is theft." Mae's job now mainly consists of touring the campus and showing customers future products; any hints of her own doubts about privacy seem dropped, in contrast to her ex-boyfriend Mercer. He dislikes internet and eventually insists on going off the grid to escape the more and more far-reaching influence of The Circle and its technologies. Kalden calls Mae, warning her that The Circle must be stopped, but she refuses to listen. Mae’s indoctrination into the company and its use of peer pressure to invoke “herd mentality” is directly contrasted by the character of Mercer. Mercer represents a small portion of the book’s world that rejects The Circle’s ever more intrusive technologies. Throughout the novel he goes from having a benign distaste for the ways of the present to attempting to escape from his doomed society. ith

Meanwhile, Annie becomes envious of Mae's success and volunteers to be the test subject for PastPerfect, a new product that tracks a person's family history and activities, to regain her standing within the company. Disturbing facts about Annie's family history come to light and she becomes increasingly stressed, eventually causing her to fall into a catatonic state. Embarrassed both by her parents' distrust of SeeChange monitoring in their home and the conduct of her ex, Mercer - all of which have been publicly accessible to Mae's millions of followers - Mae becomes upset that they have embarrassed her in this way and, while demonstrating a program designed to catch fugitives within minutes, uses it to find Mercer. He attempts to escape using his truck, but after drones prevent him from getting away, Mercer seems to make a decision and ends up driving off a bridge in front of the billion people Mae is streaming to. While initially depressed, Mae soon rationalizes Mercer's death with the help of charismatic 'Wise Man' Eamon Bailey, concluding that he was an extremely depressed, asocial human being who refused society's help, comparing his actions to a person committing suicide by jumping out of the window when being visited by a doctor.

Kalden is, in fact, the elusive "Wise Man" Ty Gospodinov, the original inventor and founder who came up with the idea for the company. Mae agrees to meet him in secret and he tells her that a totalitarian regime will soon arise if nothing is done to stop it, equating it to a surveillance society. He explains the need for privacy in the digital age and asks her to help him take down The Circle, saying he cannot do it alone. Mae thinks that he is crazy, but pretends to go along with him, but then betrays him by telling the other founders of The Circle what has happened, who ensure that Ty is silenced. The book ends with Mae looking at Annie in a coma at the hospital, wondering when the time will come that The Circle will develop enough technology to read people's thoughts, saying that "the world deserves nothing less and would not wait".

Review

I enjoyed this book, I pride myself on being good with technology, not necessarily needing or wanting to keep up with the latest stuff, but using whatever I can to make life easier for myself and those around me. I have always wondered though whether as a society we are too reliant on our pieces of technology. We are a society of people that are always seeking the approval of our peers, whether positive or negative we must know what it is people think of us. I myself am guilty of this fact. I think also if you are honest with yourself, you have been in the past or maybe are in the present and probably will be in the future. I know I will. It has become a way of life, a fact of life. It’s who we are. But What would happen if we all unplugged ourselves? Well this story is the opposite. It offers a glimpse at life where tech is essential rather than optional. It is very cleverly depicted to feel relatable and actually achievable which in itself is a scary concept. Mae falls hook, line and sinker into the trap that social media can make. It is Big Brother on a much bigger, wider and terrifying scale. I found myself utterly engulfed in the ease of the reality of this story which made it all the more interesting and intriguing to me. Mae could easily be anyone of us that find ourselves in this world with a FB, Twitter and Instagram account. (Of which I have all three) that is no doubt down to the ease of reading Eggers writing style. Its darkness was a thrilling ride of emotions, Simple enough to suck you in, whilst remaining complex enough to hold your attention to the conclusion. I found myself scared for Mae a great many times as she sank herself deeper into what already seemed out of her depth. Trusting so easily in a system that if she were honest with herself she would have realised she barely understood. It’s only when she realises how deep she is, does she crawl her way out again. This story was one of those that has stayed with me because I feel like I have learnt something about the world we live in today, but most importantly about myself. Its a reflection on ourselves that we have to reach a pinochle before we begin to better ourselves. I am surrounded by technology I can’t deny it, I’m using it now to post this review ... but I think after reading this book I realise now more than ever how important it is to let go of it from time to time. Remain grounded. This story highlighted to me the danger of being too plugged in and how much of the humanity we have inside of us we loose by broadcasting ourselves online. Don’t mistake me, I am by no means saying that the internet and all it holds and all that is possible because of it is bad. I am really saying for myself at least this book has helped me see that technology should aid life, not become a necessity of living.

**Disclaimer** I in no way wish to alter or sway anyone else’s view by anything discussed in this post. these are merely my own opinion feel free to agree or disagree as you see fit.

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