The Moral Dilemmas of Digitalization in Contemporary American Society (2013) PDF

# The Moral Dilemmas of Digitalization in the Contemporary American Society This book examines the ethical and moral dilemmas in modern digital communities in Dave Eggers's *The Circle* (2013). It examines the moral aspects of the massive technological and communicational progress in a world where...

# The Moral Dilemmas of Digitalization in the Contemporary American Society This book examines the ethical and moral dilemmas in modern digital communities in Dave Eggers's *The Circle* (2013). It examines the moral aspects of the massive technological and communicational progress in a world where digital surveillance technologies and social media giants, like Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter threaten to destroy different aspects of individual privacy. This book presents an analysis of the digital technologies dominating American contemporary society. Focusing on social media tools, surveillance devices and virtual video games, this book aims to present a seemingly accurate picture of what the American society could be like in the succeeding few years. ## Dave Eggers: the American Novelist Dave Eggers was born in Boston in 1970. He is an American writer, editor, and publisher. In 2002, Eggers published his first novel, *You Shall Know Our Velocity*, a story about a frustrating attempt to give away money to deserving people. Afterwards, he has published the collection of short stories, *How We Are Hungry*. In 2005, Eggers published his book *Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated*, a book of interviews with former prisoners sentenced to death and later exonerated. In 2006, Eggers's novel *What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng* was nominated for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Eggers has published his remarkable novel *The Circle* in 2013 epicting the life of a young worker at a famous technology company. In 2014 he published a new novel concerning anxiety with America's place in the world, *Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?*. Eggers finally published two different short novels. *The Parade* was published in March 2019. It reflects Eggers' concerns with humanitarian issues and technological development of the world. In November 2019, he published his novel *The Captain and the Glory* which he describes as an attempt to understand his era. ## The Plot of the Novel *The Circle* (2013) centers around Mae Holland, a recent college graduate, who finds a job at *The Circle*, the most powerful technology company in the world, with help from her friend Annie. The circle is created and run by three "Wise Men" Tom Stenton, a ruthless businessman, Eamon Bailey, a likeable public figurehead and Ty Gospodinov, a genius inventor. The circle combines all aspects of online interactions including: social media, business or personal communication, medical information and saves them into a single online identity called a *TruYou*. In addition, the company has been growing to contain all the other information that exists across the world. The company uses technological innovation to create a more efficient and accountable society by increasing transparency in government, business, and personal lives. The circle adds more developments to its network. Cameras are everywhere and biological functions are monitored wirelessly. At first, Mae begins to work in Customer Experience and is concerned about her privacy. Afterwards, she rises in the ranks, gaining access to more screens of information and getting sucked into the arguments for full transparency. Thus, her parents and her ex-boyfriend, Mercer, become increasingly horrified by the new rejection of privacy. She, also, becomes romantically involved with two men, an awkward coworker called Francis and a mysterious man calling himself Kalden. Kalden warns her of the dangers of "completing" the Circle or making everything known to everyone so superficially and with no respect for the individual's privacy. After Mae is caught illegally, she becomes a subject for public shaming in front of the whole company accepting a role as the primary *transparent* "face of the Circle". She becomes world-famous and rejects Kalden's concerns. As a result she loses her identity and becomes a cyborg. Afterwards, more government officials and more people are pressured to a cyborg. Afterwards, more government officials and more people are pressured to give up their privacy becoming transparent so that the rest of the world can keep tabs on their morals. ## The Role of Digital Technologies in The Circle