What Does The Panopticon Mean

Nancy Cecilia Montes
English 101 Section 23392
Professor Grace Lee
Essay # 3
02 March 2018
Seen As An Object
For years, the advance of technology has created the internet to help humans, but as well collecting information from the people if they wanted to share with the world. In a fictional novel, The Circle by David Eggers, he wrote about a company called the Circle that helps people find any information they need in the social media page, but as well watching every motivated they make. The protagonist, Mae, who works at the company has to share personal information about herself, but Mae does not want to. Then Mae was caught stealing a kayak and was unaware, which causes the Circle to act viciously on her and for not posting on their social

It is similar to an article called What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance? by Thomas McMullan briefly mentions a philosopher named Michel Foucault, who was inspired by the Bentham idea of the panopticon, but Foucault used to the idea on his prisoners. A panopticon is a place where people are always keeping an eye on from an area, but cannot see the onlookers from the tower in the middle of the sculpture. The purpose of the panopticon is to benefit people is to know if there were any issues in the building, cure the infected, and stop any conflicts between the neighbors. Yet panopticon only raises more problems than solving them, like creating uneasiness and discomfort being watched, which causes people to feel like they cannot be themselves. It is similar to another article called The Surveillance State in Your Head by Reid Smith, he wrote about how Foucault theory was used his prisoners but it still has the same effect as today in technology. Likewise, the

For example, the Circle truly believes if they were to able to stop people from having privacy, it will stop the unknowing of unfortunate events to people or loved ones. The Circle forced Mae for not sharing her activities on their social media page in the after hours of her work, which caused Mae to feel guilty and she had to put on an act of a “tremendous worker” in the fear of being fired. Mae said to avoid conflict with her job to the Circle, “Well, it’s not something I’m proud of… I really understand that… We’re obligated, as humans, to share what we see and know. And that all knowledge must be democratically accessible… Privacy is theft” ( Eggers 304-305). The Circle knows it has the power of taking away their employees’ privacy because the company knows that the people can express their free will and cannot make a complaint about it either. When people do not have an opinion, they feel like an object being observed only from the tower with no communications but it is always watching them. It is similar to the McMullan argument of Foucault building a panopticon place in the interest Bentham theory, but decided to use it on the prisoners in order to threaten them. For example, McMullan mentions about Foucault writings about his prisoner of feeling the