The Circle by Dave Eggers

[Science Missioner]

Our current book is The Circle by Dave Eggers. The Circle is a vision, not of a dystopian future, but a dystopian now, in which every aspect of our lives is recorded, shared, logged and discussed on social media. Many will have heard the saying that the act of observing changes the thing being observed. What would this mean for us if every moment of our lives was lived in the public gaze, if every choice we made was shared and the very notion of privacy came to be seen as anti-social? These are just the scenarios that Eggers explores in this novel. We might think this is far-fetched, but in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Face Book stated, “Privacy is no longer a social norm.” The Circle also presents the rise of social media as a potential threat to democracy. More subtly presented in the book, but just as important, is the affect being constantly connected has on our ability to live in the moment, to connect with our surroundings, and also to accept our limitations. In one memorable scene in the book, the main character has kayaked out to an island and on her return is told off for not taking any pictures while she was there, not ‘sharing’ the experience. She’s told that this is selfish and irresponsible, because there are people who will never have the opportunity to stand where she stood and see the view that she saw, etc. But this denies the reality that no-one else could experience that moment in the way that she could, even if they were standing beside her. An image wouldn’t convey the sound of the waves on the rocks, the smell of the salt air, the feel of the breeze. Even someone with her would have experienced it differently, bringing as they would a different set of experiences, expectations, and perhaps even different levels of sensation (a slightly less acute sense of smell, for example). The very act of recording and sharing would have changed the moment, making it something other than what it was – possibly something less worth experiencing. The Circle naturally exaggerates to make its point, but it is close enough to reality to be a truly frightening vision of the world we are creating for ourselves, perhaps without even knowing it.

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