I don't like the emphasis these companies place on "forever". To me, the tragic part about death on the internet is how confusing and muddled the event of death is. We leave behind aliases and loose ends in several different communities. We die in the middle of a rapidly accelerating digital life process.
Facebook et al. will have to develop serious policies of death eventually. Someday a third of their users will be dead-- someday the majority of Facebook users may be dead. I think there's space for a web service that lets you compose your last words on these platforms, to be delivered programmatically through APIs and other means in the event of your death. Last emails, submissions, status updates, etc. A "Goodbye World" script, so to speak. To depart deliberately, gracefully (or maybe, explosively!) from our many virtual lives.
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I don't like the emphasis these companies place on "forever". To me, the tragic part about death on the internet is how confusing and muddled the event of death is. We leave behind aliases and loose ends in several different communities. We die in the middle of a rapidly accelerating digital life process.
Facebook et al. will have to develop serious policies of death eventually. Someday a third of their users will be dead-- someday the majority of Facebook users may be dead. I think there's space for a web service that lets you compose your last words on these platforms, to be delivered programmatically through APIs and other means in the event of your death. Last emails, submissions, status updates, etc. A "Goodbye World" script, so to speak. To depart deliberately, gracefully (or maybe, explosively!) from our many virtual lives.