The host of CBC Radio’s Spark, Nora Young discusses her new book, The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us (McClelland & Stewart, 2012), with Joseph Planta.

The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us by Nora Young. (McClelland & Stewart, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Virtual Self

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Nora Young joins me now. The CBC Radio personality has written a new book The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us. It’s a fascinating book that looks at how we all knowingly and unknowingly generate data about ourselves online. How we feel, what we consume, where we go, are all things we keep track of online on one of the many social media sites we maintain. There are good things about it of course: we can see what we’re doing, looking at our habits, improving ourselves thanks to our own data whether it’s a loyalty program, a mood tracker, or a calorie counter. Businesses can use it to track their customers and their habits. And there are bad things. What about where this data resides? What if it’s misappropriated by criminals, say it gets in the hands of the wrong people? Ms. Young in this book does a fine job warning us of the pitfalls, and arms the reader with ideas on how to be more savvy. It’s a great chronicle of how our world has changed, for better and for worse. Nora Young is the host and creator of Spark, the weekly program on CBC Radio that looks at technology and culture. She was the founding host of Definitely Not the Opera. Her website is at www.norayoung.ca, and you can follow her on Twitter; her handle is @nora3000. The book is published by McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Nora Young; Ms. Young, good morning.

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