USF Our Minds Can Be Hijacked’: The Tech Insiders Who Fear a Smartphone Dystopia
1) Read Eggers’ novel The Circle (excerpt: “We Like You So Much and Want to Know You Better”, in Readings module). If you can’t access the New York Times text, use the alternate Word file. ( will be attached as file below)
2) Also read Lewis, “‘Our Minds Can Be Hijacked’: The Tech Insiders Who Fear a Smartphone Dystopia”. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia
Instructions after reading :
1) Think of a question inspired by The Circle and include your own substantive response to your question. Your question should incorporate a direct quotation from The Circle and encourage discussion of the ways Eggers engages debates about the role of technology in our lives. Think about how Eggers’s novel, a work of fiction, satirizes utopian claims for technology’s relationship to social progress and dramatizes its dystopian implications. You can also connect the novel to the texts we’ve read recently on social media-fueled movements.
Suggested topics include: social media and change; self and community; solidarity/divisiveness; sharing, privacy, and surveillance; psychology and the attention economy; addiction and reward; dangerous knowledge and the inventor’s horror at their creation; utopia/dystopia.
You might ask questions and think about Eggers’ choices as a fiction writer, including his characters and use of dialogue, tone, and figurative language (rhetorical or literary devices), including imagery.
There should be at least 2 questions for each article
