In just a few short years, social media has become one of the driving forces in society. What will the future look like a few years from now if that power continues to grow on its current trajectory?

It could very well look a lot like the world depicted in “The Circle,” the chillingly prophetic 2013 novel by Dave Eggers.

In this near-future cautionary tale, a company called the Circle has come to dominate the digital landscape by creating an all-encompassing suite of services that combines all of a user’s email addresses, social media accounts, banking and payment systems into a seamless whole with a single password. For the integrated system to work, users must disclose their true identities, which has the happy result of slaying all the trolls and putting identity thieves out of business.

The novel’s protagonist, Mae Holland, comes to work at the Circle’s idyllic California campus and throws herself into her new job. She becomes a poster child for the company’s philosophy of a fully realized digital life, where everyone is connected to everyone else and documents everything they do for social media. She even helps the company articulate that philosophy as a set of three core principles: Secrets Are Lies. Sharing Is Caring. Privacy Is Theft.

But as Mae’s career takes off, the people she cares about most begin to fall victim to the company’s voracious appetite for growth at any cost. Like “1984,” “Brave New World” and the other great dystopian novels that have gone before it, “The Circle” exposes the dark underpinnings of yet another misguided attempt to create a perfect society.