Imagine a world where everyone’s enigmatic thoughts were exposed to the public. Today, in the vast cyberspace, anonymity leads to audacious actions of cruel words posted by rather introverted individuals who would not dare to speak those words in a face-to-face encounter. Furthermore, they refuse to be held accountable for their actions and interfere with peace by creating chaos. The phrases “secrets are lies”, “sharing is caring” and “privacy is theft” (CITE?) are explicated in Dave Eggers, The Circle. Mae Holland follows these three mantras, justified by leaders of the Circle, to make life-changing decisions. A world extracted of anonymity and instead, policed by an omniscient public is one cause to the negative effects of technology on one’s private life. In The Circle, programs are developed in the Circle to implicate improved and advanced living conditions through the use of technology. Ironically, these programs such as “Past Perfect”, “ChildTrack”, “SoulSearch” and “SeeChange” introduce immoral issues. The plot of The Circle by Dave Eggers portrays the negative aspects of technology on private lives shown through character experiences in the novel and raises unethical issues about the programs created in the Circle, which correspond to the influence technology has in the real world.
Mae Holland started her job at the Circle, known to be the most powerful company in the world. It combines someone’s entire online footprint into a single online identity. The company continues to grow by advancing technology in attempts of creating an improved society through convenience. Transparency was their main focus, which they worked to achieve by installing cameras everywhere to obtain government, business, and personal information. In the Circle, Mae began working in the Customer Experience area and rapidly rises in the company as technology consumes her life. Although she succeeds in her workplace, her personal life is damaged. For example, Mae’s relationship with her parents and ex-boyfriend is tormented because of her excessive focus and interaction with technology. Mae had a romantic relationship with a secretive man named Kalden, who warns her about the risks of being overly engaged in the Circle. However, Mae still continued to be transparent and made her relationships superficial in harm of the individual, despite Kalden’s advice. Mae hit rock bottom when she accepts to become transparent, or give up her privacy, for the Circle’s benefit. After this, Mae completely loses her identity and basically becomes a robot. More people are pressured to go transparent so the public can track their lives. In The Circle by Dave Eggers, technology is the primary component to the conflict that arises within the novel.
Throughout the course of The Circle, dehumanization, isolation, and lack of privacy are the negative consequences to the characters of the novel being overly dependent on the world of technology. The founder of the Circle realized the growing chaos of the company through its intentions of controlling people’s lives through the use of technology. The Circle is a representation of how technology dictates our lives in the real world. The founder wanted Mae’s help in reviving the company for the better, which Mae refuses to assist in the project due to her increased obsession to technology. After Mae began working at the Circle, her qualities transformed to appearing more robotic. Technology is a root cause to dehumanization and extraction of genuine enjoyment of an experience. For example, in the novel, snapping pictures or being transparent allowed civilians to be connected, but lacked the excitement of living in the moment. Mae is a representation of a world that becomes more engaged in technology than human interaction day by day. Paradoxically, technology has the ability to keep us both connected and isolated. Relationships derived solely from the internet have a loss of actual human interaction, which prohibits a bond built through face-to-face communication. This is depicted in Mae’s relationship with Kalden, when she gives up on trying to communicate with him after she fails to find him through the inconvenient use of technology in the particular situation. Isolation is also shown in Mae’s changes in relationships with her true friends and family due to her addiction to technology. For instance, Mae’s relationship with her parents was affected from the transparency camera that exposed an embarrassing moment of her parents. As for her friends, Mercer committed suicide because of the Circle’s detrimental technology and Annie went into a coma from the pressure the Circle put on her as a worker. Lastly, privacy is omitted when Mae becomes “transparent” and everyone can observe her daily actions. The concept of “transparency” in The Circle relates to social media in the real world. Social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, make following someone’s daily life through pictures and one-hundred-forty characters posts highly convenient. Getting personal information, like a phone number, seeing someone’s interests by the accounts they follow, and tracking their latest activity all play a role in proving the lack of privacy because of technology. The negative effects of technology on the civilians in the novel closely relate to the consequences technology creates for humans in the real world.
The programs in the Circle were created with the intention of promoting better and more secure living conditions, which alternately resulted in immorality. PastPerfect is a program that uses documents, pictures and videos to reveal a person’s ancestors. Annie, the first test subject, felt exposed and ashamed after discovering her ancestors owned slaves. PastPefect can be viewed as immoral because of the burden it may put on subjects. For instance, Annie was treated poorly for something she had no control over. ChildTrack is a program that decreases child abductions by ninety-nine percent. The remaining one percent is guaranteed to be found through a tracker placed in the child’s bone. Clearly, ChildTrack is a violation of basic human rights. The tracker is installed in newly born children who are too young to understand the circumstances or give consent to a tracker being embedded in their bodies. Although the program was made with good intentions, lack of consent to interfere with the human body makes it immoral. Soul Search is program that allows an individual to find someone in the matter of minutes through cameras set up all around the world. It is followed by billions of people, despite its evident immorality. The program is presented to the public through a demonstration of hunting down a murderer until they surrender. In another representation, Mae searches for Mercer through Soul Search to portray to him the power The Circle holds. However, the frenzied chase for Mercer led him to drive off a bridge, which raises the immoral aspect of the program. Not only did it negatively affect Mercer, the viewers had to witness the tragic death of Mercer. Soul Search solely benefits the person using the program to seek someone. Just as humans have the right to freedom, they have the right to personal privacy. Mercer’s right was obstructed to an extreme point that costed him his life. The well-being of civilians is interrupted when they become pawns to the Soul Search craze. SeeChange installs small cameras nationwide to have the privilege of viewing any location around the world you desire to see. The program was initially shown by using it to check the conditions of waves at a beach for surfing. It is demonstrated in a deeper perspective with the example of police unnecessarily enforcing punishment on citizens. With the use of SeeChange, this dilemma would be eliminated because police would be aware that they are under surveillance. People tend to behave morally when they know they are being watched. Overtime, cameras are starting to be installed in private areas, such as in Mae’s parents’ house for the health insurance deal. Similar to Soul Search, the program is immoral because it goes against a human’s right to privacy by always being watched. Additionally, cameras are being installed and operated without the consent of majority of the civilians. SeeChange introduces unequal treatment, and would only be equal if the cameras were placed in the same area and monitored the same things. Although many of the programs in the Circle were created with good intentions and improving the lifestyles of citizens, the mechanics and consequences of the programs proved them to be immorally damaging throughout time.
The Circle had a large impact throughout the course of Mae’s life. Mae’s decisions in the novel revolved around the emptiness she felt as person. She wanted to be noticed and respected, which led her to perform actions where she could achieve her goal of being known, such as accepting to go transparent. Mae did this without thinking about the negative consequences it would ultimately have on her personal life and relationships. Additionally, Mae cared too much about what others thought of her, which led to a selfish mindset. She was naïve and blind to how threatening the company of the Circle was. Technology has taken over the lives of Americans to the point where most of our day is spent in isolation in front of a screen. Some people don’t even notice the massive integration and control of technology in our lives. Dave Eggers believes at the rate at which technology is advancing, our future will be like The Circle. The plot of the novel exposes the negative consequences of technology on private lives shown through character experiences and brings up immoral issues about the programs created in the Circle. The Circle is a non-fiction novel that successfully portrays the problems of technology on society in the real world through fantastical scenarios.