“The Circle” by Dave Egger

Technological Advancement comes with a price

In Dave Egger's novel ""The circle"" there is the existence of a technological company in America that is growing at a very high rate. The company is called The Circle, and it was founded by ?some three wise men.' The main character in the story is a lady by the name Mae Holland. This essay is an emphasis of whether technological advancement comes with a price to pay or not about the novel. Technology is a branch of knowledge that deals with scientific applications as in an industrial set up.

Arguments for technological advancement comes with a price

Mae's ex-boyfriend, Mercer

Mae ends up losing her ex-boyfriend Mercer because of the technological progress that they had invented at The Circle. Mercer is apparently against the idea, and at some point, he opens up and tells Mae that he does not like. This is because when they talk, he feels like it's not only the two of them since there are other people watching them. He does not trust it, and so he keeps off. Later when Mae corners him up and puts him on the light, he feels so depressed about it, and he ends up driving off a cliff. Mercer's death is caused by the fact that he is exposed to the cameras that are brought about by technological advancement. Consequently, Mae ends up losing him all because of the technology they invented. She is much affected by this fact until one of the wise men consoles her that Mercer was a depressed and anti-social person who needed help but instead he decided to run away when they wanted to help him. He compared him to a sick patient who locked himself in a room, and when he sees the doctor break-in, he decides to jump off through the window and ended up losing his life.

Annie who is Mae's best friend

Annie was Mae's best friend and roommate back in college. She is the one who invited Mae over to work at The Circle. However, Mae gets into the company and becomes enthusiastic thus she rises from customer experience to higher ranks in the business. Mae rises to these more great posts due to the positions she took to promote their new technological innovations and transparency. For this reason, Annie becomes jealous of Mae, and so she takes up the opportunity to encourage another innovation that allowed people to connect with their ancestors. This, in turn, leads to her great downfall as it exposed the evil deeds of her ancestors, therefore, embarrassing her and as a result, she suffers from a nervous breakdown. It is consequently the technological advancement that led to Annie's great downfall and even the distance that emerged from their friendship. It is unfortunate as the novel even ends when she is in a comma.

Mae's family

Mae installed the SeeChange cameras in her parents'home, and they were very uneasy with these cameras that were everywhere since Mae would at times stream in videos in the house. They felt like their privacy was invaded as the public had access to what they were doing at any time. Her parents had to live with some form of uneasiness, and so they could not lead their normal easy life. Mae's parents had to pay a very high price as a result of technological advancement since it cost them their freedom in their own home.

Ty who is one of the wise men

Ty is the mysterious Kalden. Ty is one of the founders of The Circle, and he has been buying time on bringing it down, but when he sees the kind of damage that the technological advancement has brought to the society, he feels it's high time to bring the company down. However, due to his fear he can't face the other wise men to tell them that, so he thinks he can use Mae to help him bring it down because he is sure he cannot manage it all alone. Mae plays along but goes right behind Ty and stabs him in the back by telling the other wise men his intentions. This then leads to Ty being fired from the company. Through this, it is evident that it is because of this technological advancement that Ty was fired for his thoughts about the company he founded. In addition to that, it has cost Mae her relationship with Ty after she told him off.

Mae's life

Mae herself had to pay a considerable price for the sake of technological advancement. She had to sacrifice her private entity for transparency to promote TruYou and SeeChange. Her social life and private life was exposed to the public and everything she did. It is because of technology that she cannot lead her healthy life. She hides in happiness and pretends to be okay even when she is worried. She does this for the sake of the cameras making herself a slave of her own life due to technological advancement. Moreover, she ends up losing touch with her friends and close family.

Argument against technological advancement comes with a price

Mae's life

In as much as Mae's privacy was infringed by technological progress, and other adverse things like losing her ex-boyfriend, it also acted as a ladder to her professional life. It is through it that she was able to rise and become one of the most significant people in The Circle. It also helped in making her famous and known to the public whereby her life became their business. In this case, we see how technological advancement has brought positive things in her life.

Reducing crime, abduction and domestic violence

Technological advancement led to greater things in the society like reduction of crime, kidnapping and domestic violence since people's lives were made public as there were always people watching hence safety was ensured. This was enhanced by the fact that someone could not harm you knowing very well there were people watching.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I agree with the fact that technological advancement comes with a huge price to pay. Mae had to pay dearly by losing friends and family as illustrated in the novel. She also lost her freedom as everything she did was exposed to the public forcing her to act on the person she was not. Even though technological advancement has also led to positive things in her life like gaining fame and power hence the rise she always yearned for, the negative stuff outdo the positive stuff. It is also evident in the modern society how technological advancement has led to both positive and negative things.

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