1984?

SECRETS ARE LIES, SHARING IS CARING, PRIVACY IS THEFT. As these Circle mantras were first introduced and repeated throughout, I found it hard to deter my mind from the Orwellian propositon of WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. While different mantras and utalized in different circumstances and envirements, the two novels posess and undertone of rampant totalitarianism and unchecked survallience through technology. The phrases which serve as a reference point throughout introduce a scary reality for Circle societal members and even our own society.

As Mae is now fully, and perhaps strikingly, submursed in the transparency and technology-obsessed company, these mantras take on a meaning which provide insight on the mentality the circle attempts to produce. The circle is a institution of a lifestyle rather than just a job. While only working for a certain number of hours a day, the constant idea of being plugged in and connected is an indefinite expirence. She becomes so engulfed in the constant social media institutions tracking her, and also updating them voluntarily. In this fashion, she even begins to gage her own sucess and accomplishments on her persona online and the sucess of that. The circle brings forth a sense of never-ending tracking, monitoring, and pursuance craddle to grave. The mantras highlight this essense. Because "secrets are lies", Mae finds herself under constant scruitiny of cameras and information survalance. While I do not find these mantras cohesive or humanistic, they are the glue which keeps the circle in order. As the society works to "complete the circle", these mantras give a thesis-like stance on such.

As for traction in the real world, these mantras hold a recognizable and relatable place but not to the extent that they do in the Circle. The specific phrase, sharing is caring, is something repeted in our culture as a postive way to encourage sharing, peacful relationships, and helping others. Taken out of that context and into the context of the circle, the phrase is warped and intruding. In the same fashion, secrets are lies and privacy is theft reiterates the idea that all that happens must be known. These mantras leave no room for questioning, or the human expirence in general, because it takes a devious and anilating spin on proverse concepts. If these mantras began to have a hold in the real world, thier meanings would take up a more synical connotation like in the Circle. They are modes of instilling transparency, which is not a democratic goal in the slightest.

All That Happens Must Be Known

Dave Egger's "The Circle", takes on an all too real and all too familiar Google-like brigade of complete transparency, which distorts sense of self through an innate relationship between obsolete privacy and omnipotent data. The relationship between data and privacy, despite intricate factors and context, is rather simple: data annihilates privacy. Mae begins to get a real sense of the invasive world that she has entered as the novel progresses. She noticeably grows weary of the utter lack of privacy bestowed upon the Circle employees as she toys with her inner moral compass and her superficial need to prosper in the company as well as fit in with their transparent vision. As Mae becomes more and more engulfed in the social practices of her community with institutions such as PartiRank, InnerCircle, and OutterCircle, she begins to understand that her every move is broadcasted. This mass collection of data, accessible at a moments notice, begins to shrink humans into nothing more than a statistic or a digital footprint.

The connection between data and privacy is blatantly blurred in a circumstance which Mae encountered regarded her absence at a Portugual meeting she didn't feel invited to. When it was expressed that her absence was felt, Annie explained to Mae that her invitation rooted from a few photographs stored on Mae's computer that are now on the Cloud: "You don't have to run around signing up for Portugal interest clubs or anything. When Alstair wanted to do his brunch, he probably just asked for a search of everyone on campus who had visited the country, took pictures or mentioned it in an email or whatever" (111). Annie attempts to nonchalantly explain that at any second, and for a reason as trivial as a Portugal brunch, every database, email, and travel history can be scanned and reported to make a list of Circlers. While Annie ensured this was a normal practice to expedite the process and make things easier and more efficient, Mae quietly felt violated in a which she found hard to explain. This invasiveness made Mae uneasy, even though it was harmless and with presumably good intentions.

In the same fashion as data trumped privacy regarding the Portugal lunch, Mae faces another instance of exploitation with perhaps a heightened degree of extremity. Mae lightheartedly attended a seminar on a new dating site called LuvLuv with her interest Francis, however, the situation quickly turned intruding and humiliating when it was Mae's personal information examined for the room. Despite all the information broadcasted being opening online, Mae still felt violated as her favorite restraints, food ordered, places visited, allergies, and preferences were illuminated for everyone. While everyone in the room was getting a kick out of the practicality and revolutionary aspect of the whole site, Mae sank in despair: "But then again, it wasn't entirely accurate, so was that the problem? Having a matrix of preferences presented as your essence, as the whole you? Maybe that was it. It was some kind of mirror, but it was incomplete, distorted" (126). The idea that all of this well maintained and extremely invasive data existed was not the main issue, it is the idea that the data brought fourth characterized every aspect of every human when that is simply not the case. A human is much more complex, much more filled with unmeasurable concepts of passion and personality and interest, that a digital legacy disregards in its entirety.

The Circle & Penn State: Prompt 1

The chilling aspect of distopian literature resides not only in the themes of totalitarianism, transparency, and oppression, but the relatability and paralells we see in the work which we observe or feel in our own society. The timing in which I delved into the novel "The Circle" by Dave Eggers could not have been more impecable, as it set the stage for me to make many connections between the work itself and my own personal expirences. Despite the oddness of relating the start of my journy as a first year student at Penn State Univeristy with the distopian and ficticious employment at a lavish company set to rid the world of personal identity and privacy, the similarties were apparent from the beginging of the novel. Depsite many similarities, undoubtledly the differences were prominet and  apparent as well. The novel became an incredibly personal expirence for me as I traced Mae Holland's first weeks as an employee of "the most influntial company in the world", and the sequence of emotions she portrayed as she took in her new surroundings and drew conclusions about herself and her new life.

Much like Mae Holland, my first days on Penn State's campus were filled with awe-struck wonder and absolute surreal starry-eyed walks down many unfamilier streets. Mae's first impression on her first day paralelled mine: "The campus was vast and rambling, wild with Pacific color, and yet the smallest detail had been carefully considered, shaped by the most eloquent hands (1)." Everything was so new and vast, and I was overwhelmed with the thought that I would never,in a million years,be able to navagate this community without being glued to my map app on my phone. Much like Mae had a more veterned tourguide in Annie, I had my brother who lives on campus to take me around and show me the ins and outs of such a broud assembly of buildings and insitituions. As Mae's phase of wonderment continues with a lavish and utterly normal occurance of a grand party on campus her first night, I quickly learned the same rites take place in my new home as well. Just as her new boss, Dan, stresses and ingrains in her the absolute and vital importance of building a strong sense of community on the campus, I recived the same ingrainment from the seconded I stepped foot on Penn State's campus. From "we are" chants walking down the street, every passerbyer wearing something relating to school pride, and my inition into the community at convocation by the president, community and a sense of family has been pushed onto me as well.

 I resonate with her wonder and lust for the shineyness of her new surroundings and all the glamour that comes with it, but I also relate to the feelings which follow the fleeting amazement. She slowly begins to feel for herself the impossing work that she is involved in and the stresses and hardships that come with such. While I am not subject to total transparency as she is, I am still put under a looking glass of swiping my ID card, working rigourously to meet standards and ideals set in and out of the classroom, and attempting to keep in touch with who I am while expanding my horizons and my inner self.