fishers, surfers and casters

I was listening to a podcast (I know I know, how 2006, right?) of triple j’s Sunday Night Safran, where I heard the story of a young woman who claimed to have been “tuned”. She bought an item from an electronics store, where the cashier asked for some personal details for, she assumed, warranty purposes. One minute after leaving the store her mobile phone alerted her to the fact that the cashier had requested her as a Facebook friend. “Tuning”, according to Safran, happens when your personal details are taken and used unwittingly for social networking purposes.

Has anyone heard of this term? Am I getting it right? I mean, “tuning” was the word I heard on the podcast, but it may be spelled differently.

I’d appreciate it if anyone could enlighten me.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows and that article I love to hate, will be in Melbourne as a guest of The Wheeler Centre’s series of free public lectures. I want to go, to see if he can convince me that “the internet’s pervasive influence is fostering ignorance”. First I’ll have to look up “fostering” in the bookie thing, you, that thing where it gives meanings to words and stuff.

The lecture will start at 6.15pm on Thursday 23 September. More info, including location, is all here. If you’d like to go, shoot me a message so I can look out for you. I’m looking forward to it. Carr has some interesting issues to raise. Better yet, the lecture is only for an hour, which is good because lectures are like, soooo long usually.