Social Media is no longer an Esoteric Environment

“Social Media is no longer an esoteric environment; it has now become the heart of the lives of some individuals.”

On the 23rd August 2017, my fellow classmates and I watched a movie called “The Circle” featuring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. The Circle is about Mae Holland (Emma Watson) getting a job at the world’s best technology and social media company. Mae then joins an experiment that pushes the boundaries of ethics, values, privacy and her personal freedom. Soon after joining the experiment encouraged by the founder (Tom Hanks), every decision she makes starts to affect the lives of her family, friends and all humanity.

Everyone’s real life within the physical world and their digital pseudo life, within the digital world, is different. Social media has evolved over the years allowing us more than one application where we can present and showcase our best self, this includes being able to delete and add filters to pictures we upload for example. Social media has become for humanity to be able to create our own unique identities and being able to control what complete strangers across the world can see of us. On the other hand, fake identities are also created in the online sphere where people hide their true identity because on these fake identities they can rant and say just what is on their mind concealing who they really are. We are currently living in the digital age where everything we need is available online.

In our real lives within the physical world, it’s not as easy to hide behind a fake identity because your face stays the same. As off the topic as that might sound, it is true. Our real lives show others we come into contact with who we really are, what emotions we are experiencing and what our likes and dislikes are. The physical interaction of face-to-face communication is what people often remember you by.

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are drivers of this digital pseudo life accounts because on these platforms it’s so easy to conceal your true identity whereas on LinkedIn and Facebook. It’s a bit more difficult to hide your true identity because these two platforms link your real identity to your digital identity. Facebook and LinkedIn are the only two popular social media platforms asking for your real name, date of birth, past education experiences, relationship status and about your interests. Platforms such as Twitter and Instagram allow us to showcase our best selves like I said. We control what we post and what we want people to see about us.

In the film, The Circle, we see that privacy barrier being dropped when Mae Holland decides to go “transparent.” This means she will be filming every aspect of her life besides when she needs to use the bathroom - for that she gets three minutes. Being “transparent” allowed the world to see who Mae was talking to, what she was up to every day and heard what she heard. There was no filter so if she gossiped about someone, the entire world would hear and know what she did.

Humanity needs their privacy for certain things, because when Mae went “transparent” she exposed not only her personal life but the lives of her family and friends too. In the end people became distant because when they’re with Mae, every move they make and everything they say and do gets recorded and played for the word to see in a constant live feed online.

Humanity needs privacy sometimes. Constantly being watched all the time is not good. Your subconscious mind is always awake. Therefore people should be allowed to “Log off” or “Sign Out” and not be found when they don’t want to be found.