Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Ghosts on the net.

What would happen to my Blogger, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, and etc. accounts if I were to die tomorrow? Would they live on as a ghost on the net?

It's an interesting idea. Everything would continue on existing after my death like a carnival ride crafted by a dead man. Pages would load. Slide shows would play. Words would continue to exist with my thoughts and emotions. It's interesting to think of a ghost this way. Just as a profile page still exists after the host dies, so does a ghost. The page doesn't know that it's dead.

And is a page in some small way still the person who made it? If it still contains emotion in its texts and photos, does it not still retain some small part of the individual who made it?

Is this why profile sites are so popular? A natural instinct not only to be remembered by minds that will also die, but to leave a permanent mark on something. Just something to think about.

Oh my god. Look here.

"Hey!!!!my name is Haley and i love life...!" She died yesterday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's funny - Chris Swinger and I were discussing the same exact thing earlier today. (We're roommates.) The page remains, with snapshots of your former self, preserved in the form of blogs and pictures... It's realy sad, however, when it isn't maintained, and gets polluted by spam bulletins and other cyber-trash.

Howard said...

I've thought about that a lot too. I remember when a member of our graduating class died, his myspace was still there, with people posting their grief and wishes for his family. It's a really odd thing, to leave an electronic ghost with bits of your essence preserved perfectly. One step closer to immortality, eh?