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Social Media has allowed modern society to connect with one another on an online platform. By sharing videos and photos of oneself, people expose a piece of his or her lifestyle to the public. The public, then views these “posts” and reacts to them in the form of comments, likes, retweets, and shares. However, one price society, as a whole, pays for the comfort of social media is personal interaction and consideration of other people. In theory, social media aims to include everyone within its spheres, but also excludes those who value personal interaction. These two conflicting ideas are well represented in the novel The Circle by Mae and Mercer. One instance of trouble between these two former lovers is when Mae exposes Mercer’s work to the public without his permission. Mercer comments: “Mae, you’re just unable to allow anything to live inside a room. My work exists in one room. It doesn’t exist anywhere else. And that’s how I intend it” (Eggers 260). Here, Mercer’s views on personal privacy is colliding with Mae’s opinion of public exposure.
Another issue Mercer presents to Mae: is the phenomena of social media replacing personal interaction between friends. Mercer believes that Mae’s fascination and new job at the Circle has turned her into a more boring person to interact with. Mercer says: “You’re not doing anything interesting anymore. You’re not seeing anything, saying anything” (Eggers 262). Unfortunately, to Mercer, Mae has become an uninteresting friend stuck in her own online reality. On the other hand, for Mae, Mercer has become somebody who couldn’t keep up with the fast changing society. These two different points of view go head to head in the novel and seems more and more incompatible with each other.
This issue of social media shadowing personal interaction is prevalent in our present society. One widespread and familiar example is celebrity feuds online. Often times, people of high profile stir controversy by posting arguments and personal insults aimed at other celebrities on social media. Personally, I think it’s a cowardly behavior to sit behind a screen and post insults attacking other people. Yet, these acts are prevalent and are the results of the loss of personal interaction. Before the widespread use of social media, people were able to resolve conflicts in a private atmosphere between those involved. However, with social media, this option of personal resolution is left unattended. Through the use of social media, people make their private conflicts public and allows the world to witness the feud play out. While some people might enjoy this as a form of entertainment, I believe otherwise. I think it’s both counterintuitive and embarassing to take personal conflicts to social media. At a certain point, these feuds become uninteresting and pointless. In the end, they achieve nothing and leave both sides of the argument despising one another without any reconciliation. Had personal resolution been used in some of these “Twitter Feuds”, more conflicts would have been solved in a more private and orderly manner. Also, each conflict would have been separate cases of real personal reconciliation, providing society with new methods to solve conflict between people in real life.
picture 1: http://www.toptensocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Twitter-Feuds-e1383498086199.png
picture 2: http://cdn4.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/gallery_landscape_1296x730/2013/04/mark_cuban.jpg
To some degree I agree with your agree with your argument that social media is sometimes menacing in its capability to overshadow personal interaction. However, I think it also has the potential to enhance personal interaction, by creating longer lasting links online when two people cannot meet face to face. It is also a useful venue to address public concerns and create conversation about important issues. Although many twitter feuds are petty, some feuds bring about valuable conversation. Feuds can bring up pressing issues like race relations, misrepresentation in the media, and other biases. Mae sometimes has trouble accepting Mercer because she sees these kinds of benefits of social media. She sees the power of mass outreach.
Both of your posts bring up interesting points in regards to data and privacy and Mae becoming a “boring person”. I found your examples extremely strong in exploring the lack of distinction between data and privacy within “The Circle”. I never thought about the fact that the Circle constantly scanned Mae’s laptop throughout the novel. if that isn’t a violation of privacy, I don’t know what is. Moreover, I found it interesting that you chose to highlights Mercer’s opposing viewpoint within this post. This provided an interesting contrast surrounding the central idea in the novel that data should not be private. Finally, I agree with your point that the issues presented within this novel directly correspond to our current society.
I also agreed with many of the points you made within your third post. It was smart of you to highlight the ideological differences between Mae and Mercer once again. Additionally, I found your real-world example of Twitter feuds really interesting. I completely agree that this type of argument is one of many examples of society hiding behind their phones. Moreover, with this type of argument seen so frequently within pop culture, it is important to recognize that this is simply another way that individuals live through their phones. Overall, you made very interesting points within both posts.