Friday, July 25, 2014

Book Twenty-Seven: The Circle

What is The Circle?  A vast Internet company that is built upon idealism and aspires to measure and monitor your life all in the name of empowerment.  Mae Holland is excited at the opportunity to build a career in among the movers and shakers of the social media world by 'Zing-ing' and amassing hundreds of thousands of followers through her 'SeeChange' commitment.  As she skyrockets to the top of the Circle, Mae had to decide if her ever-increasingly public life is worth the cost.

Readers of Dave Eggers' The Circle will fall into two distinct camps.  Fans of the book will enjoy the thought-provoking, soul-searching technological distopia portrayed with unassuming hoodie-wearing deities and workplaces that look more like campuses than professional offices.  Those who dislike the book will cling to the flat satire as the primary reason for their dislike.  This reader is firmly in the latter camp.

The Circle is my first read from Eggers and one that I enjoyed immensely.  It's difficult not to take umbrage with several of the plot lines, lack of fleshed out characters, and the thinly-veiled swings at Silicon Valley.  Eggers is clearly preaching to the masses about the error of their ways.  Eggers manifests his personal concerns about social media and our current societal trends through Mae's unwitting devotion to the key tenants of The Circle's mission.  SECRETS ARE LIES. SHARING IS CARING. PRIVACY IS THEFT.

Whether you want to parallel Google Glass or it's creators, Twitter, Facebook, Siri, Instagram, [insert your favorite shopping/social site here], or Pinterest, any reader can see the cautionary tale because Eggers beats you over the head with it.  What saves this book from being forgettable, is the ending, which I won't spoil here.

As I see it, Eggers professes an almost 'Y2K' sense of hysteria when it comes to invasion of social networking into our lives.  However, you, Dear Reader, will no doubt take away what I did.  Simple but precious reminders...  Facebook posts are no replacement for true social interactions.  No amount of pinning will satisfy that longing for a smaller dress-size, and bitches will always be bitches in real life just as much as SecondLife.  For this reader, The Circle has made be think twice about how I connect and why.

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