What if the end was nigh?
The question in the previous part touched a very delicate matter, but no worries I had a plan to do so and just intended to start the discussion. That was just an introduction to what I really wanted to discuss. Okay, maybe some of you have already got close to what I meant :) but let me continue.
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The Nintendo Generation (look up in the Urban Dictionary) |
The younger generations (and I hope that we can be regarded as the members of those;)) have been in constant touch with the electronics since the early age. We grew up with computers and I could even venture to say that most us were somehow brought up by them. I bet you all played Nintendo one day or at least the PlayStation... it's not a shame. After the silly games came another silly thing which is the Internet.
It's so silly, silly, silly :) that the Network, computers, Internet services are so deeply embedded in our daily routine that we all live nowadays our own digital lives. What you have got on your computer, on your e-mail or social networking account is a digital transcript of your life.
We have personal web sites, facebook accounts, we're using instant messengers. Our e-mail accounts have gigabytes of e-mails. The Picassa accounts we're using store thousands of our very personal photos... The example of the e-mail account is pretty good. Most of us tend to use the same e-mail address over a couple of years, which means that we probably have an archive of our correspondence with our friends, colleagues from school and later from work. Every thing that concerns us today is DIGITAL.Even the money became digital as most of the banks prefer the e-banking as cheaper and more convenient for its' clients. Our every transaction is carried out digitally...
What would happen with our digital legacy after we finally die? You may think that it's a very new issue, but the dotcom corporations already have its' own procedures for the situations, when their users pass away.
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Facebook for example allows any user to report that specific profile belongs to a dead person. After reporting such an event the status of the account can be set to “in memoriam”. Polish NK.pl has no consistent policy in those terms and every single case of the user that passes away is being considered individually.
The most interesting is the problem of inheriting the digital property... Not every company gives the access to the dead users accounts to their family members. Google for example gives such possibility - http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hlrm=EN&answer=14300
It seems that the Grim Reaper found out what the Internet is... Don't you think that the way we say good-bye to our beloved ones and the whole mourning should be redefined in the 21st century? Or maybe you find it inappropriate to introduce the real death into the digital world?...
You presentation went interesting way. I've never thought whan happens with those things, I thought just like old tv or cellphone leaves in family hands.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say the same when we are talking about virtual reality. F.e. have you seen such abstract thing (for me it's kind of absurd) like virtual graveyard? (http://www.wirtualnycmentarz.pl/) Just... what?
It has even part for animals!
I believe the methods of showing death are changing, but we need to stop and thing if with changing them we are not changing our perseption of this phenomen. We should be aware to not start to think about death in virtual criteria. It's already dangerous, you probably have heard about jokes like "you don't have fb/access to internet? then you are not existing!".
Or something like that... if you cannot google it, it doesn't exist:) I'm sure that we simply live in so much interesting times. Thanks to the new communication technologies that affect our lives in some many ways... we need to redefine many basic aspect of our life.
ReplyDeleteFirstly what does privacy mean? Secondly what is our identity - can wee fully be a virtual person? And finally what does the death in digital times mean? And we're going to witness all those great changes :)
I think that this kind of thinking is sick. How can we teel about death in this way. It is wrong. It is very serious event for a family of the deceased. I am sure that it is the least nice moment for them so just leave this topic alone. We shouldn't make from death any performances and show it all the world via internet. In this case we should avoid internet and leave this unpleasent event in our home and do not share with world with our problem.
ReplyDeletePersonally I do not really care about what would happen eg.with my facebook account. Who should know would probably know about my death and my account would be just not used. I do not know why are you writing that Internet is silly thing. If there was no Internet we could not have eg. this conversation :) and I could not probably have opportunity to pass english as I have no time to attend classess
ReplyDeleteFor every dead person worlds issues are not important. But you forget we need to secure our... let's say leftovers as informations and personal data because someone can use it agains our family f.e..
ReplyDeleteSurely we need time for mouring but time passes, and we - living one - need to take care of everything.
@Artur
ReplyDeleteSometimes the issue we're talking about... does not only concern the family, but also the closer friends, or more distant acquaintances. Sometimes it's hard to just "leave it at home".
Moreover, I don't think that "in Memoriam" accounts is a way to make a show of the death. I find it rather a next step evolution of the traditional "death notice", which you can see on the information boards at school, work or in the church...
Kąkąl said: "if you cannot google it, it doesn't exist" it was intriguing for me, some times ago when I open google I always wrote my name and see if i exist on web ;) Maybe you watched movie "Wanted"? There was a scene where main hero wrote on google (or some similar) and didn't found anything about himself. Remember? In past I was a little worried about my exist on web (know, know it was very silly ;)) but now I've that somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAbout belonging to "youngers generation" I think I doesn't belong there, because first for me was books and outside world not Nintendo or internet. I've that in late age, maybe around 10-14 year old? I know I'm strange and belong in the middle tradition and modernity.
But back to topic I don't care what happens to my profile on Facebook or e-mail when I'll be in "better world" or "the other side of the invisible curtains separating the living from the spirits". I think one of my last will is erase everything that belonged to me on the internet. I do not want it to be used in future at bad things.
The ending of this post reminded me of digital graveyards, where people mourn and buy virtual flowers (for real money, though). For me the whole idea is ridiculous and paying real money for pure virtual things, especially when real people, who passed away are involved, is the thing that I can't think of. On the other hand, this concept originates in Japan, where there is huge population density and the problem of large number of graves. However in my opinion, even having in mind the overpopulation of the world, the virtual graveyards are a step too far.
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ReplyDeleteI do not care about what would happen with my all accounts after my death. I think that it isn't normal to say goodbye by posting on profile user who is dead. Even after death nobody should intervene our privacy and set status and it's weird to inform people about death on virtual graveyard.
ReplyDeleteI feel weird after reading your post. Internet is some kind of entertainment for me and I feel this is not appropriate to mark someones facebook account after his death.
ReplyDeleteAfter my death it would be not important to me what is happening in this world, but isn't it ridiculous to make 'in Memoriam' profile on social networks.
I really don't like the idea of announcing someone death in Internet.
I it shouldn't be possible to inherit somebody accounts after death. Someone could even use dead person account for their own profits or just impersonate to him. Of course if someone have a will to give their accounts then let him.
ReplyDeletehttp://facebookhumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/zombie-facebook-humor.jpg
ReplyDeleteCleaning up the whole information mess can be 'fun' ;)
We shall not fully die - Internet remembers us and some legal bills make certain companies keep our data for a longer period of time.
As for bringing the Reaper into the digital world - maybe some people just want to avoid those awkward moments when some people write on facebook's walls 'happy birthday' to a person who died.
Internet is the fastest and most spread media nowadays. Do we find newly born babies on FB? Yes, we do. Do we find it disgusting in any way? Not really.
Since we document all of our lives on social sites - let's just be consistent.
It's very interesting problem. Facebook as bigest graveyard of 21st century. I don't imagine if people could say last words at this portal. Wall in facebook - grotesque eptitaph, all you ever done and you wanted to share it - here it is. I don't use this portal and I think there is a very big problem with poeple privacy which is devoided by them selfs. I wonder, if the greatest people in the mankind had a facebook profile, what would we see in there. But I've drifted away from the subject, sorry ;D. As people above me I disagree with inheriting accounts, making 'in Memoriam' status and all of this, for me, unethical ideas.
ReplyDeleteI do not think every day about death. I know that facebook's gives a few possibilities after death. At the request of family , they remove the account forever. The second option is acount change ,, the account of memory " where friends can remember the person. One more way- the nearest person can get the right to decide what to do with the account.
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