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The Circle by Dave Eggers Essay

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Cristal Zeas Professor Rogoff FYE 1320 April 1, 2014 Sharing is Caring In present day society, individuals dedicate their time to social media on the internet and electronics, towards updating statuses, rebloging pictures, favoriting videos, reading up on current events, and staying connected in general. It’s only been 25 years since Tim Burners-Lee invented the world wide web and it’s no secret that it is one of the most progressive and influential invention of our time. Dave Eggers, in his current book The Circle, foretells his version of what can happen with the growth of technology and social media and pushes our current standard of being virtually connected from the main social networks Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Tumblr. In…show more content…
The creator of SeaChanges, Eamon Bailey, tries to sugarcoat the necessity of having such gear when he says, “There needs to be accountability. Tyrants can no longer hide. There needs to be, and will be, documentation and accountability, and we need to bear witness...All that happens must be known” (Eggers 67). With this device, any one is capable of hooking up a gadget anywhere they want, at any moment, and anyone can become “transparent” (as the book calls it) without even knowing it. Everything sounds idealistic so far. The common people will be able to view their possessions, make sure everything is safe, take a vacation without actually leaving their household, and even check up on family members on occasion. Even a politician can wear it on their shirt and have the whole world keep tabs on how the politician negotiates and make deals. But agreeing with Margret Atwood with her review of the book, this can lead to a very dystopian world, questioning “How involved can corporations and government be involved with the personal lives of individuals?” (Atwood). How much involvement government/politics and businesses has on privacy towards themselves and people outside of their work has been an issue for many years, but it has recently became a big issue in the world today because of Edward Snowden, former U.S. contractor of the National Security Agency, who disclosed information of thousand classified
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