When Mae goes to visit her parents, to find out why their SeeChange cameras weren’t working her dad vents about all the effort they are spending on responding to messages and how rude people are that the feedback isn’t instant. Have you felt that way about any sort of current technology?

For your next journal entry, presuming you’ve read through Book 2, Parts 1 (pages will vary depending your edition of the book – it might be p. 385) ponder all of the following:

1. The transparent shark is clearly a metaphor for something. What do you think that metaphor is?
2. If you are involved with children, what do you think of YouthRank? If such a system were available now would you want to know what ranking the children you are involved with have? What would be the pros and cons?
3. Annie is working on a project called PastPerfect. Again, if such a system were available now would you want to know what it held? What would be the pros and cons?
4. When Mae goes to visit her parents, to find out why their SeeChange cameras weren’t working her dad vents about all the effort they are spending on responding to messages and how rude people are that the feedback isn’t instant. Have you felt that way about any sort of current technology?
5. Mercer’s farewell letter to Mae includes “this tool, which is far more insidious than any human invention that’s come before it, must be checked, regulated, turned back, and that, most of all, we need options for opting out. We are living in a tyrannical state now…” Based on what you know about The Circle and all its components do you agree or disagree with Mercer? Why? Do you worry that society could be headed down this road in real life? If so, how?

This journal is private and only viewable by you and the professor.

Feel free to have a little fun with your journal.  It’s okay to be creative, experiment, and try new things here with your writing style and content. You can try freestyle writing if you like, where you let your thoughts run without worrying about style, grammar and spelling.

Please do write in this regularly – we want you to reflect as the class is going on, not wait until the end.

Note: The Circle is 500 pages. There are at most 2 pages of content that contain adult situations (expressed in PG-13 terms) that are relevant to the plot. If these small segments are a problem for you please contact your professor to discuss alternate options.