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Tom Hanks and Emma Watson talk Social Media at The Circle Premiere

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve seen the attention-stealing trailer for The Circle. The film made it’s big premiere last night and is playing in theaters around the world today. The film stars Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega and the late Bill Paxton, its premise is as follows.

A young tech worker named Mae Holland takes a job at a powerful Internet corporation called The Circle that was co-founded by Eamon Bailey and Tom Stenton. She quickly rises up the company’s ranks and soon finds herself in a perilous situation concerning privacy, surveillance, and freedom. Mae comes to learn that her decisions and actions will determine the future of humanity.

During an age where we are more connected to our phones and social media profiles than ever before, and where the term instant gratification is synonymous with young adults, this film poses an interesting look into a reality that isn’t too far off.

Emma and Tom both made comments at the premiere of The Circle about her own phone use that made us rethink the time we spend on our social media. Now, we know, it’s sort of our job to keep up with what goes on in pop-culture world, but it’s food for thought. Are we controlling our phones, or do they control us?

Emma caught herself wondering the same thing and made a change in her personal life.

I love social media, and I love what it can do and how it brings people together but used in the wrong way, it’s incredibly dangerous.

When did we go from waking up and eating breakfast or having a chat with the people we love, to waking up and checking our phones before we even get out of bed? When did we begin to value what we can post on social media more than the moments we exist in?

Tom had this to say about social media usage and how it’s a double edged sword.

I think that I have always been very suspect of any type of thing that you put on social media because there used to be this adage, ‘No good deed goes unpunished’? Well now the adage is, ‘No post goes uncommented upon. Even if you’re putting up a picture of a lost glove or a lost baby bootie somewhere in the comments section will be, ‘How dare you not say anything about global hunger?!’

You have to wonder, with a film like The Circle and the world we’re living in, how much of our lives are being watched or even studied without our knowledge? Without having seen the movie yet, we do know that the basis of the film almost leads you to believe that the people who work for The Circle are almost tricked into staying. Someone offers you a better life, basically throws it at you without so much as a warning, and then demands respect and compliance for what they so graciously gave to you. You end up feeling guilted into acting accordingly.

There’s nothing that gets posted on social media that’s private, even things that get deleted remain, in some capacity. In a smaller scale, it’s already happening. Sure hits you in a different way when you think about it that way before heading to the theater.

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