The Circle

Before I began this book, I was already grappling with the effect that mass communication technology has had on what it means to be a person.

Starting with cell phones, the communication expectations of most humans fundamentally changed. Most people are assumed to be “always available”. This means that if you are texted or called, it is expected that you will answer your phone or quickly respond to a message.

Social media intensified these expectations, with the creation of a permanent avatar that was some reflection of yourself that could be accessed by anyone in your network at any time.

For someone socially detached such as myself, these expectations are a nightmare.

This book takes the nightmare to its logical and awful conclusion.

How much privacy and identity will be lost as social media and Ultra powerful corporations - Google, Apple - control or have access to every data point on you and every aspect of your personality? Could we cease being individuals altogether and simply blend into a collective community?

In this book, Eggers guessed at just how much will be lost and lead me down an engaging tunnel of madness on the way there. I was actually afraid to read Book III, and had to take a deep breath before I did, a rare emotional reaction for me.

This is a great, scary book. I'm not going to go live in the woods, but I will at least continue to be cognizant of the changes that new media and communication enact on my existence.