The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us

by Nora Young

The host of CBC Radio's Spark explores the very real impact of the virtual information we generate about ourselves -- on our own lives, our communities, and our government.
 
We generate enormous amounts of online data about our where we go, what we do, and how we feel. Some of that is stuff we choose to report; some of it is the offhand data trails we leave behind. The Virtual Self looks at the debates and challenges around virtual data-sharing -- from Facebook status updates to Google Navigator -- and its potential for building more responsive communities and governments. Nora argues that if we wrestle now with issues like privacy and data control, we can harness the power of that data.
 
The host of CBC Radio's Spark , Nora Young has fascinating information at her disposal, unique insights into the intersection of the virtual and real worlds, and a wonderful voice for making all of these clear to a general audience. Accessible and entertaining, The Virtual Self takes that personal, psychological reality of everything from email to status updates and teases out the increasingly bigger impacts on the real world around us of the virtual information we all generate.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada, Science, Cultural, Social Media, Business

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2011

Reviews

[Barbara McVeigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are reading this review via Twitter or Goodreads, you may understand what it feels like to be at least a little bit addicted to the virtual world. Existing without a physical place means ideas can be exchanged at the speed of light and participation is democratic.

We are compelled to compulsively record ourselves online. Nora Young comments that the “pattern of our data seems to carry an explanatory power, a sense that life isn’t random...that, over time, the trivial acts of our mundane daily life shape a picture of who we are” (48).

The Virtual Self treats the creation of data as pleasure, art and philosophy (48). I had been expecting from this book a doomsday scenario akin to the one described in Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows. Instead, The Virtual Self gives practical information on our digital culture. The book describes how we generate personal data on-line and how this data can be used for positive means, such as self-improvement, and creating better societies and cities. The book also flags areas where this data can be misused: disengagement from the body, lack of privacy, skewed stats, bias, and profit.

By reading this book, I gained a better understanding of how the digital world works and have found the book to be prescient: When I listen to the news, I often hear the issues identified in this book being raised as concerns in the media. The book is peppered with modern-day interviews and the ideas of McLuhan, Foucault and Clay Shirky, among others.

The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World around Us contains topics that we all should be interested in, but I’m not sure how much people are concerned with the “digital doppelgänger” they are creating. In fact, I expect circumstances and technology to change so quickly that the ideas in this book may soon become dated. As well, Young seemed to repeat herself at times. I felt that I didn’t learn anything radically new, but perhaps that’s the point: We so enjoy using digital tools that we tend to not pay attention to what is being done with the data we produce. In this book, there is no apocalyptic prophesy—which would probably attract more readers—but realistic, rational fact that’s mostly positive in nature.

As I was reading, I often asked myself, how can the ideas from this book be applied to my life, especially in terms of education? After reading the line, “[w]hen information is no longer scarce, institutions change and social norms change with them” (135), I instantly thought of how quickly we’ve accepted people speaking in public on their cell phones. We used to ban electronic devices from school, for goodness sake. Now my school board has launched a BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) policy to be able to keep up with rapidly changing technology.

After finishing the book, I started to wonder, what subtle changes will the future bring that will radically change the way we live?

[Rick Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A whole lot of yap about how we're all losing contact with our physical selves. Uh huh. Next?

[Faith Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have become a society addicted to our digital technology. With a desire to be constantly online and the simplicity of the tools being developed which allow us to do just that, are we losing ourselves and our individuality? Are we sharing too much and if so, at what cost?

From smart phones to social networking and even those ‘I agree’ clicks that claim we actually read the disclaimer, are we revealing too much about our personal identity? Are we sharing with the right people? Oh sure, here in Canada we have laws about what personal data can be collected but what happens online – where we volunteer our information without questioning who sees it?

Author Nora Young does an exceptional job of bringing to our attention these questions and more! From apps that help us track and analyze our own behaviours to those customer reward cards which are collecting your buying preferences, to our desire to be ‘friends’ with thousands of people we have never met…how are we coping with this increased desire to digitally share?

Are we putting ourselves in needless jeopardy?

As individuals, we are sharing more data and tracking ourselves more than any other generation. GPS devices track your every movment and on top of that, we share it with the masses through our online social networks. No more need for government spies, just ‘friend’ someone and you can discover all the boring details about their lives from the comfort of your portable device. Diaries and journalling used to be done in private. Now…we call it blogging and share our inner thoughts with anyone who wants to read them.

In the 40s we embraced the personal development industry with their books and seminars designed to enhance our sense of identity. Today – we can do all that online and for ourselves. You can literally track the most minute of details about your day to day activities in your quest for self awareness. If you need motivation to lose weight and work out, there is an app for that. If you want to connect with avid hikers and cyclists about the best pathways and map systems, there is an pp for that. If you want to figure out how to find more time in your day, there is an app for that. Perhaps the new career choice for many will be stats and logic combined with graphic design to help us interpret the crazy maze of stats we are collecting on ourselves and each other.

Technology is advancing so quickly, are we truly prepared for the glutton of data that is being shared openly and freely. Are we putting ourselves at needless risk by not questioning how our personal data will be housed and who gets to maintain control over it.

While the data we create can be a powerful tool for personal development and promoting responsive communities, it comes with some real privacy threats. The Virtual Self explores the debates and challenges being faced in this new digital reality. If we don’t wrestle with the question of ownership and privacy protectrion laws now (says the author), it may be too late to protect ourselves in the future.

[Lisa Faye · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy it - partially because it was dated (as is anything about technology after a very short time) and partially because it felt a bit repetitive. Interesting to be reading it at a time when Facebook is facing so much scrutiny around data management and sharing of information.

Will I share less and check my privacy settings more closely after reading this and the recent news? Probably not. Will I be more thoughtful about the picture I am creating on the internet when taking all of my data as one large image of myself? Probably.

If you want the best bit, just cut to chapter 8 - where she discusses options around how to manage and live with the instability and security concerns around your self generated data and the internet...

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast and easy read. Basically, I read it in a few hours. The author is coming to Litfest in Edmonton this year, and I wanted to read the book before the festival.

This book is about how our online lives are impacting our offline ones. It's about how we network, self-track (which I'm doing right now with this review) and the kind of data that we share and how it can be used. This book would only appeal to people who are already using things like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. The author makes the information accessible and easy to understand. I don't consider myself a techie, and I was still able to follow everything she was saying.

Some good food for thought. I also liked that many of the examples in the book were Canadian, which made it more relevant for me.

[Anna Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I’m reviewing is called, “The Virtual Self, How Our Digital Lives Are Altering The World Around Us” written by Nora Young. It was published in 2013, in Plattsburgh, New York by McClelland & Stewart Ltd. This book has a total of 203 pages.

This is a non-fiction book that talks about new technologies tracking our every move. There is a wide range of apps that help to track our everyday life and the majority of the population is relying on them to live a more efficient life. For example, there are a variety of apps that let you self-track your workouts specifically tracking the number of steps you ran. Other apps also let you include tracking how many hours you slept at night and tracking your mood throughout the day. Although it is beneficial to see your detailed daily activity, the author adds in privacy concerns. She states, “If you put your data online, you better be prepared for it to be public, the thinking goes” (164). It is not a good idea to overshare your activities but to keep it private for yourself.

The author, Nora Young is the host and creator of a show called “Spark” where it talks about technology and culture. As well as, she was known for writing and broadcasting about technologically mediated change as she was the founding host of a radio program called “Definitely Not the Opera”. Nora Young expresses her curiosity about new advanced technology and explains how the world is becoming more digital. She wanted to emphasize the fact that things are starting to get easy; there is no manual work anymore. One tap on the screen directs people to track their every move. The theme of the book reveals how self-tracking can be efficient. It can be used for personal or business purposes. Many apps like Facebook and Twitter automatically track your location and find new people located around you. Those apps can also check up on you and track your preferences by inserting useful advertisements that might appeal to you. As mentioned, the lack of privacy can be a concern to some people. There are apps out there that don't let you know you have been tracked. Nora Young implies, “Sometimes, I feel as though bits and pieces of me are scattered across the Web” (175). I agree with the theme because of how humans love to find new ways to be well organized but it can be terrifying to have your information exposed on the internet without knowing.

I enjoyed reading this book. I learned a lot of new things about the uses of technology. I related to this book because I use the many features on my device to track the hours I sleep at night and the number of hours I spend on my phone a day. My favorite thing about this book is that it targets a lot of age groups; anyone can read it and relate to it because nowadays, people have their own devices. It’s important to know about the features and the dangers when owning a device. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would want to learn more about the digital world or if you have a phone and want to know what it knows about you.

[Dove · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting read! In my undergrad, I took many classes on the sociology of surveillance & society, and the sociology of big data etc. It was a topic I thought i wouldnt enjoy but ended up loving. i think its so relevant to the modern world with all our fitbits and apple watches that are always tracking our every move!! this book talks about the dangers of that- how our data is being used to develop infrastructure and design cities and how the consumer market is being fuelled by our data. i also really liked the psychological discussion of how we are losing autonomy and agency because our sense of goals and success is dependent on how well these apps think we are doing, which is problematic. she also talked about how much technology and self tracking has changed humans like how we have shorter attention spans and our minds have become more number based instead of creative. i liked her discussion on governmentality and how the government owns our data and is not honest about their usage of it. she also talked about the positives like how people with rare diseases are able to connect with each other on internet forums and how no matter how much you avoid it, tracking and data is going to become inevitable so you need to find a way to harness it to your benefit by joining data activism groups and protests. really relevant to whats going on lately with social medias and privacy breaches… really taught me the importance of reading the terms and conditions! perfect book for anyone who’s sociologically minded!!

[Jina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was really hard to read. The author must have excelled in school at writing a lot about nothing, because I swear that 180 of these 203 pages say the exact same thing. I had to dig for new information, rather than a rewording of what the author had already established. While the overall message is important, I was left feeling like someone got me all riled up over something, but didn’t offer any real solution. Yes, we should demand there be better treatment of our data, but how exactly does one do that outside of, essentially, abstaining? Who do I even turn to request such a thing? How do I know exactly what I should be asking for? Should I just trust that such a simple request will be fully respected? What should I look for in terms of services? How do I recognize the red flags of my data being abused? None of these questions are answered. For the most part, the author just goes on and on about us logging our personal data online, the different thing we might log, and the different apps and websites out there and how put together a Data Map. Oh yes, and you should be fighting for better treatment of your data as a “data activist”, but the author doesn’t know exactly what that is and/or that would look like.

[amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accessible intro to self-tracking, data visualization, data privacy & portability, and a few other interrelated issues that stem from looking at data collection as a means for self-efficacy. Oscillates between optimism about e.g. smart cities and "data for social good" and advising a "critical approach" and "data activism" that position individuals as consumers and citizens. I wonder how the personal-data-as-intellectual-property model for data privacy has fared since 2012. (not well?) Overall argument is that self-tracking can help individuals and governments achieve their goals so long as individuals own and can provide truly informed consent for the use of data by/about them. Although I disagree that data activism is about individuals changing their habits and gaining new "literacy," or that it's necessarily a good-citizen thing to share personal information, this book clearly lays out each case.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for more. I thought there might be some insight about how Social Media sites are created to get you addicted. and the dangers of social media upon the development of the brain. Instead it re-hashed self-tracking over and over, and how it might be good for society. I thought an obvious example might be google maps tracking phones in cars on highways and their current speed and being able to inform other user of traffic jams, but it never came up!

[Amy McLay Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written at an introductory level, so assuming your job title does not have some form of "digital," "web," or "data" in it, you'll might get more mileage out of this than I did. The other factor of course is that even at only 5 years old, a book on this topic is showing its age.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed by this relatively boring and fluffy book. Nora does a good job at describing her main foci: self-tracking, digital selves, digital activism and so on, and there are some fascinating chunks of text, but she tends to repeat herself chapter-to-chapter and put in enough filler that the book could have easily been a large essay instead -- a non-fiction/academic quality which irks and fatigues me. I liked: learning about self-tracking habits, such as Benjamin Franklin and modern crazies who record every single thing they do; self-tracking as adaptive strategy -- as a way for us to deal with our wild changing times and loss of self akin to gin in England during the Industrial Revolution; the related discussions of finding the self through yoga and meditation; her descriptions of interesting websites such as Goal Mafia; the notion of 'likes,' status updates and check-ins as forms of ambient awareness akin to the presence of others in a room; medieval 'mappae mundi' and how they were drawn with weight given to the political or spiritual significance of places rather than geographic accuracy (pg 141); and comparisons between the Gutenberg print revolution and the modern data revolution.

Moreover, two of my favourite sections were on 1) Marshall McLuhan and digital time/space:

"With electric technology," he [Marshall] writes, "we have to numb our central nervous system when it is extended and exposed, or we will die. Thus the age of anxiety and of electric media is also the age of the unconscious and of apathy." What an apt description of our own anxious, apathetic age, at once hyperconnected and remote. We are dispersed in space, able to send digital bits of ourselves all over the world. Our bodies are now extended -- scattered, really -- across innumerable devices, handhelds, phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.

...digital technology takes us out of being where we are. You only have to watch someone talking on a cellphone as she walks down the street to see this displacement, this disembodiment, in action. She is there but not there. You can tell by how awkwardly she moves, as anyone who has tried to navigate around someone on a phone on a busy sidewalk can attest. She's also...in a kind of third, digital disembodied place. Digital technology creates this other sense of non-physical place.

In addition to this changed sense of space, our understanding of time is disrupted thanks to the asynchronous nature of so much of our communication. We scatter tweets or notes on friends' Facebook walls as though they were seeds, to be pecked at by birds whenever they happened by. The bodily experience of linear time dissolves in a media culture that is one of a perpetual collaborative, fluid, now-ness. Pgs 84-85

And 2) Gary Shteyngart and his novel Super Sad True Love Story

In the world of the novel, people carry something called apparats on their bodies at all times, which project their own personal details and allow them to see others': a mix of banal biographical facts, such as where a person went to school, with the hyperpersonal, such as sexual tastes and financial ranking. Shteyngart uses it to paint a picture of a society that distracts itself from confronting the existential fact of human mortality even as it uses technology to try to halt decline and death. It is a culture that treats the body as a hygiene project...The vision Shteyngart portrays really is of people walking around with their Data Maps displayed, much as people online now have an avatar that represents them. Pgs 112-113

So, in conclusion, too much fluff, too much repetition and harping on the need for digital responsibility and activism -- not that these needs aren't important, quite the contrary; I feel a less is more approach would have applied here, a short bold statement in chapter form rather than 2.5 chapters worth of nagging -- and yet good chunks of fascinating information and some writing worth reflecting on. I've already begun seeing my digital world differently, including using this site. ;)

True Rating 3.2 Stars

[Isabella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author needed to hit the word count.

[Shireen]

I took this out of the library, and it expired when I was about halfway through. There's a long hold list for it, and no wonder. Hopefully, I won't have completely forgotten what I've read by the time I can check it out again ... but I suspect I'll have to start from the beginning again. That may be a good thing.

I had trouble getting into it at first. It wasn't the writing -- Nora Young writes as she talks on her CBC radio show Spark. It's engaging and colloquial. Perhaps it was because I wasn't sure where she was going. It was in chapter four that I started to understand how the book was threaded together.

There are some really interesting concepts in here, concepts that require pondering not a fast read-through (though the style of writing encourages the latter), concepts like what does it mean to self-track to our identities and our physical bodies, like how will we deal with copyright issues versus our need for inevitable whole-life tracking.

Anyway, I look forward to getting back into it. (P.S., I don't rate books I haven't finished.)

[bossy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very insightful. Throughly researched. There were services I didn't even know were available, that I was able to find out about through this book. The tone is casual and the humor is appreciated. I enjoyed learning from it, but I think that it can be a difficult book to read if you are not familiar with the topic or some of the terms used.
I would recommend it to people that are active users of smartphones and the internet and want to learn how can they improve something about themselves or learn about their habits.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was fantastic, and reading it at the cottage with no internet access caused me to have some insights I might not have done had I been scrambling to connect to all of Young's examples while I was reading. Full review to follow (it's currently in longhand in a journal). Too lazy to type it, I have now done an audio review here:http://clarehitchens.posterous.com/po...

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. It was OK. Lots of thought-provoking ideas, but the structure didn't work for me. There were several times when I felt like it was really going somewhere interesting, but then it didn't really dig very deep. For anyone that is already aware of the issues raised (like pretty much anyone that is already is a fan of the author from her radio show), there isn't a lot new here.

[Miranda Marcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title sounded far more interesting than the book actually was. I felt like, as the book went on, the author was rehashing the previous chapters. By the end, I was glad it was over.

The questions raised in this book, and the discussion of digital data, privacy and connectedness are all important discussion points, but unfortunately the author brought up the questions without offering much else.

[Sharon Stoneman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms Young raises a lot of really interesting issues in this book. If you are interested in ideas around how we are creating virtual versions of ourselves - both deliberately and by default - the time to read this is now. Technology and attitudes are changing so fast that this book may out of date sooner than you'd think!

[Liam Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The examples were a little bit ho-hum, no where near as flashy as Malcolm Gladwell...but the straightforwardness allowed for a surprisingly concise account of why little people like you and I should be concerned about rights to personal data. It's a commodity, and should be treated as such. Complete mind bender for me, definitely recommended!

[Rhys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably the most interesting discussion for me was the opportunity to use mined data for developing smarter cities in efforts towards sustainability. Real time movement of people for traffic, consumption preferences, etc.

But, mostly, we can expect data used by corporations for profit-making.

[Anita Griffin]

I attended Third Tuesday in Toronto in June 2012 and Nora Young was the guest speaker. Generously, they gave all attendees of the event a copy of her new book. I love listening to Nora's show Spark on CBC Radio 1. I'll look forward to reading this book soon.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started the book for a class but finished it just because I really enjoyed the author's points. Loved the historical comparisons for self improvement and quantifying our selves. Definitely recommending to several people.

[Jada Roche · Rating 3 out of 5]

if you're online and relatively intelligent, then nothing in this book will be a shock. I would have enjoyed a deeper dive into the data side of things, since that drives the "copy" of us in the interwebs. mostly boring, which was disappointing.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a build-up to the final chapter on 'Becoming a Data Activist'. Issues with tracking and self-tracking and big-data are explained. Also provided are a a few historical explanations of how technology and record-keeping affect culture (and big business).

[Achab_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really interesting ideas about self tracking and the disembodiement of digital technologies.
This book is an easy-read, written in a clear style. Unfortunately I found that the author was repeating herself a lot throughout the book, hammering the same idea over and over again.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable with a conversational tone, this book does offer some fascinating insights regarding the impact of the virtual world on us and the way it changes how we record ourselves.

[Janet Hamilton-davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty pedestrian. Not much new.

[Caroline Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and interesting read.