Lunch Club! And Here’s Why You Should Stop Sharing Everything On Social Media
How would you feel if a stranger came up and told you what you'd had for lunch?
In Dave Eggers’ The Circle, released last month, protagonist Mae starts a job at a fictional, semi-monopolistic tech and social media company. Imagine what would happen if Facebook merged with Google merged with Apple. That’s what The Circle is like.
The ethos driving the cult-like company is that only when everyone shares everything about their life — their thoughts, their opinions, their photos, videos and emails; all in the cloud, for anyone to access — can the human race reach its potential. Only by eliminating all semblance of privacy, secrecy and mystery can we truly know ourselves and each other, and finally reach ‘Completion’. Of course, it’s a self-serving M.O.: the company then sells all this information to turn a huge profit. But people buy in anyway.
The book is eerily close to home. Moreso when you watch clips like this: YouTuber Jack Vale scanning for people who’ve ‘checked in’ nearby, scrolling through their feeds, and confronting these strangers with everything he knows about them.
The most terrifying part? Only one of these people seems truly freaked out.
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