The Novel Cure: Literary prescriptions for living in a virtual world

Ailment: Living in a virtual world

Cure: The Circle by Dave Eggers

As we live more and more via our digital devices, with a screen interposed between us and the tangible, sensual world, it's easy to lose sight of how this might be impacting on the quality of our day-to-day lives. Does it matter if we share our innermost thoughts with thousands? Or that we spend more time with people we've never met than the person living next door? After reading The Circle, Dave Eggers' novel about the dangers of becoming enslaved to the online world, you'll see that it does; and you'll simultaneously find your cure.

When 24-year-old Mae Holland gets a job at the vast social network corporation that gives the novel its name, she can barely contain her delight. A seductive hybrid of Google, Facebook, Twitter and all information-grabbing companies, The Circle is where it's at. The "Three Wise Men" who run it are seemingly benign; and the beautiful new technologies they spawn – such as 'TruYou', an interface which manages your every transaction, even your vote – are gifts that help people's lives run more smoothly.

Mae spends her downtime loyally filling in surveys about what shampoo she uses and where she goes on holiday in order to spread her knowledge – for "sharing", it seems, "is caring". One of the first to achieve "transparency", with a camera round her neck broadcasting everything she hears and sees to thousands, then millions, of watchers, Mae adheres to the aim of The Circle: complete transparency for the human race. After all, if everyone is watched 24/7, crime would not exist.

That Mae and the population in general submits so enthusiastically to The Circle is terrifyingly plausible; we are not so very far from it ourselves. Spread this novel like a virus among your friends (both real and virtual), and let the resurgence of real people having real-time conversations in real places commence.

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