Just finished The Circle by Dave Eggers. Eggers is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint. I found it riveting, a real page turner. Actually, I was reading it on a Kindle so I guess it was a real button clicker.
The premise: a young woman, Mae Holland, gets a job at a tech company called The Circle. The Circle is a company that is basically Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple rolled up into one. The headquarters is a sprawling, modern campus in northern California where everything is clean and shiny and intentional. Working for the company is almost like belonging to a cult. The company believes in absolute transparency and the progressive utility of technology. "Circlers" believe technology will change the world and make it a better place.
As Mae becomes more engulfed in the culture of The Circle, we are taken on a ride into radical democracy and openness. We are shown a world that believes secrets are lies and that privacy deprives others of ourselves. Mae finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a tech Utopia that may hide serious consequences for the way we interact with our fellow humans.
The Circle is a fascinating parable about our modern obsession with social media and technology. After reading it I almost canceled my Twitter account. Great story, with important themes that we really need to consider as we become more attached to our smartphones and Instagram feeds.
