The Circle (2017)
The movie The Circle is about Mae Holland who lands a job at the world's largest tech and social media companies. Those who work at the circle have really created their own network society where they eat, sleep and breathe off of what their smart devices tell them to do and how to improve their lives. All of this information is tracked on a massive blockchain for everyone to see across the world. The CEO of the circle wants to launch an experiment and wants Mae to be the main test subject. The experiment is about being 100% transparent online and it pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and personal freedom.
Communication and media is constantly changing and evolving. In the past 50 years a lot has changed for better and, in a way, for worse. In The Post, newspapers were one of the main sources of news. People got the paper delivered to them everyday typically once a day. Most households at this time had a television so they could keep up to date watching the news as well. The newspaper kept people involved in public discourse and people really paid attention to it. Not to forget that newspapers were a big business relying on subscriptions and ad money to fund it. Comparing newspapers to The Circle, news and information can be looked up within seconds. Changes can be noted almost instantly on the internet whereas a newspaper can be updated the following day. The Circle can actually view what's going on as it is happening since Mae is wearing a camera 24/7. It's being funded by people who watch her stream and those who purchase circle products and subscriptions.
Social media has also taken news and information to the next level. In The Social Network, we see the humble beginnings of Facebook which is the leading social media platform in the world with 2.23 billion users. Facebook was only meant for college students to connect and keep up to date on who's dating who and what people are up to. Mark Zuckerberg did not have the initial intentions to make the platform worldwide. The Circle takes this idea and extremely pushes the limits. The circle wants Mae to be 100% transparent to the point where she wears a video camera all day everyday and the footage is shown live on social media. People become so obsessed with watching her life that they will go up to Mae and act like they are best friends when Mae does not even know the person. In this case, social media has altered reality so much that people do not know what is "real" and where that line is drawn.
While The Circle is a fiction movie, it does reflect what is going on in the media today. People are becoming very consumed with social media and the instant gratification that comes with it. Social media companies want to know more about us so they can change algorithms and push predictive ads so they can create "online egos" of every of us to get us to buy certain products, change our beliefs, and control our lives. I think watching The Post and The Social Network then The Circle is a great way to show where media was and where it is going today. Communication and media is constantly changing and new platforms are always being created by using technology and innovation.
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