Hypervisibility, Digital Labor, and Surveillance Capitalism: A Zuboffian Reading of Dave Eggers’ The Circle

Abstract

This study will not only scrutinize Dave Eggers’ (2013) The Circle as a dystopian novel but also critique ever-increasing power of technology, hypervisibility, and digital labor that causes the erosion of privacy and human’s maltreatment in the digital era. The study will delve into the novel through the theoretical framework of Shoshana Zuboff’s (2019) concept of surveillance capitalism, focusing on hypervisibility, digital labor, and a manipulative role of Tec-companies as key themes that showcase the threats of technology/AI. Furthermore, the study argues that the portrayal of apparently user-friendly technologies that turn out to be manipulative in the novel, The Circle, exposes the ethical and existential costs of technology and digitalization in the contemporary world. Thus, the novel is a warning about the consequences of an uncontrolled technological empire feeding on surveillance capitalism and behavioral exploitation.