As the Circle continues, Mae becomes more and more involved in the way of life at the Circle and less involved with the outside world. I agree with Mercer when he says the Mae is boring now. Mae no longer has a personality and has become a robot following the instructions of everyone at the Circle with no opinion of her own. She is losing touch with reality and real human tendencies and emotions. She only cares about the virtual world where there are seemingly no flaws.

I think the real difference between real and simulated life is that real life is much more unpredictable, but it also comes with deeper rewards. For example, Mercer has a small business where he knows all his costumers individually and he likes it that way. When Mae tries to get him to expand to the internet, he gets angry because he doesn’t like to be controlled by anyone and doesn’t want business from people that he doesn’t know. He finds satisfaction in knowing exactly what his costumers like by simply asking them and not being praised on the internet by people he doesn’t know(258-262). In real life, human emotions, flaws, and passion often drive people to act in certain ways. You cannot control them to act a certain way like you can in simulated life.

My parents own a small business and are always telling me the importance of getting to know their customers. People are more likely to come to a business where “everyone knows their name” like in the theme song of Cheers. There is always a line for Starbucks because they try to make it personal by writing your name on your cup. Even in the dining hall when you ring up your food, the person working using says “Have a good day, Alexia.” It makes you feel more appreciated. You don’t get that same feeling from ordering online. No one is there to smile at you and say thank you.

In today’s social media culture, I think the same phenomenon is happening. As more technology is introduced and new ways of connecting are being discovered, people are becoming more and more anti-social. As Sophia mentioned in her speech, most of the time when you are walking down the street, everyone you see is on their phones. We are all surrounded by people, yet we choose to focus more on the virtual world then the real world.

While there are many great things about technology, there are also many downfalls. Teens are being cyberbullied more than ever because people can hid behind a screen and say what they want. Everything is easier to do in a simulated world. You aren’t able to see the direct effects of what you are doing, so you become more numb to emotion. This is what happens to Mae as well when Mercer tells her to stop talking about the internet comments his picture got. She doesn’t know how to recognize human emotions anymore since she’s been hiding behind a screen so much (262). Society must be cautious of all the new technology, otherwise we will all become emotionless and insensitive to people as Mae is becoming.