About Circles We Run In
Post 761:
There’s a novel called The Circle that was published in 2013 that deals with the ramifications of digital media and the total consequences of a future where everyone is increasingly connected through their cell phones, computers, whatever apps or social networks are out there lumping us into a utopian brotherhood/sisterhood of person-kind. Spoilers from here.
It reads extremely easy and is most likely made for younger adults, but what the heck do I know? I buy books by the bundle. Anywho, besides dragging, it brings up a lot of interesting points.
The main theme is transparency. The main character is thrown into some utopian tech company that is basically Google and Amazon and Facebook and Twitter combined into one deal. She loves her job and slowly goes down a rabbit hole, eventually getting to the point where she’s walking around wearing a camera that shows anyone following her every moment of her life.
It’s not poetry, but the book is fairly deep. More and more it seems people in real life are willing to show their “lives” to the world. They’re giving up privacy, yes, but the weird part is that they’re doing it voluntarily. With a smile. I’m pretty hands off with social media as far as my personal life, but I still have all the accounts and do the posts. I’ve got a frigging blog for crying out loud. So… yeah. Guilty.
We let strangers in our circle, and to a certain extent this could be healthy. Until it’s not. I see people turn into products all the time. Their posts aren’t experiences. They’re advertisements.
It’s a transformative era and it’ll work itself out. But we aren’t people anymore. We are people plus the thing in our pocket. That sounded gross. And it is.
This stuff has been talked about ad infinitum, but maybe they should teach the younger generations the morality or ethics of being a person plus gadget. If we’re going to confine most of the youth in crappy government prisons, at least give them a few pointers on how to retain their humanity, to not lose it like a lot of people my age have.
This is highly unlikely, as the purpose of a school (generally) is to take away individuality and free thought.
Overstating my case? Most likely. Alarmist? You bet. I’d say read a book with actual physical pages, but that’s what’s got me going off right now. It’s like a circle. Okay, I better stop. Hey, it’ll be fine………….
Cheers and see you after.
