Final Excerpt #3

In Dave Egger's novel, the book follows the character Mae Holland. Mae lands the job of her dream working for the most powerful internet company, the Circle. The Circle is responsible for the online identity app TruYou which includes all internet information on a person. This includes all medical information, personal communication, and social media. Through technology, the company creates a more efficient and accountable society with transparencies in personal, government, and business lives. Mae begins climbing the ranks of the company and eventually starts to lose concern for her private life. As she is exposed to more and more information she becomes less private in a way. This was best described in her experiment where she wears a webcam wherever she goes. This level of transparency never until the end of the book. This is the part where she describes three mottos in which she learned. The three mottos are "sharing is caring", "privacy is theft", and "secrets are lies." In a society, company in this case, thriving off knowledge, these three mottoes make sense. This is true, because these mottoes are promoting more knowledge and information sharing. Mae is confused at this time whether these wer her own thoughts or thoughts than she was influenced to believe. Mae had become a mindless member of the Circle, and forgets privacy.

Social Media is very similar to the example of The Circle. Social media has become less about personal lives. There are now social media for businesses and government as well, looking at the current president of the United States. This level of transparency is coming more common. The reason for this is because these companies and government need to be to keep up with times in a way. Adding personal lives, theses three spheres operate on the same platform, social media. The exchange of information, although mainly observant, is similar to the Circle's app TruYou. The three mottoes also exist in modern social media. Keeping secrets is harder with social media, as many people can view one's page or are connected with people who know about the secret. Information is tossed around a lot more when it comes to social media. Social media was also founded to share more and connect more with others. The more people connect the more information is exchanged about someone. The last motto, "privacy is theft", is more nuanced. In a way, social media is about sharing things, and at times when people who are active on social media try to keep something private, their followers feel almost robbed. Information that could be shared has been kept from them almost stolen from them, even if it was never theirs to begin with. The last one is the most stalkerish out of them all. The more efficient social media gets the larger the chance is that society will become the Circle.