This novel will never fail to disappoint at further surprising me with how technology is dehumanizing humans. The other day, I saw a poster of a street view picture of Hong Kong and how modern and industrialized it is. The caption read “Just remember this isn’t how its supposed to be.” It means technology is very unnatural to our animal side. We are losing touch with our inner creature, our inner human. When people say that technology is controlling us, I totally agree. When the doctor told Mae that the bracelet will no longer feel warm when Mae and the bracelet “get used to each other” made me stop reading and think about life for a moment. I think this novel is a warning or foreshadowing of how the world or at least America will look like in the future on a social/technological aspect.
I thought I was addicted to social media until I was introduced to Mae and other circlers. The amount of messages and notifications a circler plumage through is unreal. Reading about the sheer number gives me anxiety. Social media and school is hard enough, but social media and a job that sort of requires you to patrol and maintain your image? Mae spent 9 hours. 9. Hours. On zing being social to increase her popularity rank in the company. She did this because Dan hinted at it when he called her to a meeting in his office. I just feel a really weird vibe reading this book that makes me hate my phone, my laptop, and all my social media account. As a result, I tweet about how I feel towards the book. The book also points out how far people go for their please their narcissistic urges. Mae for example spent an entire night at HomeTown to increase her PartiRank to make the “T2K” group of Circlers. Although she was told the PartiRank wasn’t too important and really wasn’t a popularity contest, she felt like it was her duty, her civic duty to work on her profile to prove to people she is involved and outgoing.
Francis. The scene at his dorm creeped me the fuck out to be honest. Poor guy though. When he saw Mae’s pulse through her wristband, it was an indication of sexual arousal that he noticed. Now we have technology to tell us when others are sexually aroused? This takes away (as mentioned before) from our natural instincts as humans, replacing them with signals from technologies. I believe if aliens were to be studying humans the way humans study other creatures, they would think our primary form of attracting mates is through our phones or on social media. The “slide into the DMs” wave in our generation has now become a legitimate way of meeting new people and ultimately getting laid. Tinder and other dating apps and websites. Back to Francis, its so creepy he videotaped the encounter and to nonchalantly claim that nothing is deleted at the Circle gave me the chills. Before clicking off of this, please consider the idea that we are losing touch with our inner human and think of an alternate universe with no technology and how it would affect your everyday life and lifestyle.
Thanks For Reading,
Mohamed