In the movie, The Circle, I learned a lot about the social implications of not having privacy. We saw many examples, which will be explained later, of how so many lives can be affected by the changing of social norms. The Circle is a movie about a girl who starts working at a company which claims to be the most influential company in the world. The girls name is Mae Holland in the movie, and she starts working in the Customer Experience department at the Circle. Mae, like most people would, believes her privacy is being compromised with the mention of her family, and with outside influences from her ex-boyfriend Mercer. At a party, Mae bumps into Ty Lafette, the guy of wrote the code for The Circle’s flagship product “TruYou.” Mae doesn’t realize that the guy she bumps into is the creator of the product, but forms a friendship with him, and then later discovers who Ty is, and what he’s been doing for the last several years since he had been “off the grid.” As the social anomalies continue in this movie, we can see Mae has conflicting thoughts about the Circle, and what she should be focusing on. Tom Hanks plays a great role as the Founder of the Circle, Patton Oswalt plays the COO, and the two control the outcomes at the Circle. Through an incident where Mae is torn between being completely transparent, or leaving her friend who doesn't want to be transparent, alone. The movie comes to a close as Mae reveals the secret emails, text messages, and found calls, that the Founders are having when nobody is around. Mae realizes how technology used correctly, can be helpful in a society in today’s day and age.
The social interaction, social norms, personal values, and social values were all elements or concepts of sociology in the movie The Circle. Throughout the film, we are able to see just how much transparency The Circle uses in its use of technology within everyday interactions, with not only it’s employee’s, but the outside population. Social norms dictate that a person has a right to privacy, and what this movie showed, was a different world, where that social norm, is not upheld. We see countless times how the invasion of privacy was not only embarrassing, but also at times humiliating, and still yet, at times, fatal. Time and time again in society we see how technology positively affects social norms, but only when its received with open arms. On the flipside, some folks, react irrationally when asked to take part in invasive and advanced technologies nowadays. In the movie The Circle, we see how TruYou is a basic makeup of all the major social media products sorted together, to make the truest and most accurate profile of “who you are.” In theory this sounds great, and absolutely fine. However, the movie shows us just how much absolute power can corrupt absolutely, and start to destroy personal and social values in humans. Tom Hanks’ character as well Patton Oswalt’s character, seek to impose 100% transparent lifestyles, and slowly starts to incorporate this “normality” as he sees it, into a twenty-four hour day of one’s life. The movie The Circle, does a great job of incorporating and highlighting the social aspect of life, in its many forms. The social norms discussed, and the personal and social values mentioned, all speak to social interaction, and how it is different today. The changing of technology, in today’s world, when correctly administered, is not always a bad thing.
This movie had plenty of social problems, and the implications were very strong. One of the most influential parts of this movie, was a scene where Mae had to choose between allowing the company, The Circle, to use a new product to search out her friend, or to let her friend just be. Mae chooses to allow her friend to be a guinea pig of the company's new product, and Mercer her friend, drives off a bridge by accident, as the result of a drone flying too close to his truck. Mae’s social issue was clearly peer pressure, in which she gave into and gave the OK to have her friend be found. Mae knew she was caught up in a situation where she thought she had to be completely transparent, despite her intuitions which were to leave her friend alone. This scene ultimately leads Mae to question herself, her motives, and why exactly that technology didn't work for Mercer. Mae overcomes her mistake, and exposes the Founders for who they really are as frauds, thus leading the new wave of The Circle and its employees. Thanks for stopping by, I highly recommend this movie.
