For the longest time, I've been wandering around with this weird thought. It's kinda morbid, but just go with me on this, okay? So, like any normal teenager, Jean -don't know why I picked this name, again, just go with it- has a Facebook account. Now one day, Jean has an accident and she dies. This would be the morbid part.
My weird thought is the following: what happens to her Facebook account? I mean, she's dead, so it's not like she can delete her own profile, right? Plus, I don't think Facebook is linked into the local mortuaries, so I doubt they'll be the one doing the deleting? And her parents -I assume they don't get along that well- don't know her password. So what happens to her profile?
Does it just stay there, trapped forever in cyberspace? Will people she once knew -old school friends perhaps- one day find her profile and send a friend request, not knowing she died all those weeks/months/years ago? It just seems strange to me that while Jean is dead in reality, she can continue to live on in cyberspace. She can still be tagged in pictures as if they were taken just moments ago. She can still be tagged in other people's statuses. Jean can appear to be alive for quite some time, effectively becoming immortal -if you don't mind the Facebook status that never quite seems to change or the profile picture that never gets updated. But technicalities aside, Jean's still there, in some freakishly, morbid way.
Do the rules of life and death still apply in cyberspace or is it some sort of timeless vacuum? If so, is immortality only a Facebook profile away?
My weird thought is the following: what happens to her Facebook account? I mean, she's dead, so it's not like she can delete her own profile, right? Plus, I don't think Facebook is linked into the local mortuaries, so I doubt they'll be the one doing the deleting? And her parents -I assume they don't get along that well- don't know her password. So what happens to her profile?
Does it just stay there, trapped forever in cyberspace? Will people she once knew -old school friends perhaps- one day find her profile and send a friend request, not knowing she died all those weeks/months/years ago? It just seems strange to me that while Jean is dead in reality, she can continue to live on in cyberspace. She can still be tagged in pictures as if they were taken just moments ago. She can still be tagged in other people's statuses. Jean can appear to be alive for quite some time, effectively becoming immortal -if you don't mind the Facebook status that never quite seems to change or the profile picture that never gets updated. But technicalities aside, Jean's still there, in some freakishly, morbid way.
Do the rules of life and death still apply in cyberspace or is it some sort of timeless vacuum? If so, is immortality only a Facebook profile away?
2 comments:
I once read about a girl who kept updating her friend's profile, to 'keep him alive'. If that isn't creepy, what is? Maybe I'll just tape my passwords somewhere in my room where my parents can find it :p
Jup, that is pretty creepy, but also really sweet in a way. But more creepy than sweet I guess..
Wouldn't hurt to leave a lil' post-it behind with some numbers and letters on.. just in case ;-)
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