It is certain to say that someday, you and I will eventually be deceased. Now, enough for depressive talking; one of my life goals is to be remembered -to leave a legacy. Similarly, one of my favourite quotes is by Banksy, and it says “I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” We have seen proof of this quote being quite true: Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, many other historians and celebrities, and even a gorilla named Harambe are all still remembered after their death. However, regardless of what someone does become throughout their life, there is one thing that will never, ever be able to forget us: the internet.
Right now, it is safe to say that most of us (if not all of us) possess some kind of social media profile in either Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or few others, like Google+ and LinkedIn. Strange enough, that profile that contains information about us will most likely never go away; anything uploaded to the internet stays on the internet. This is caused mostly by how companies handle large databases: Facebook will rather increase their server size than going profile by profile (even with the help of a script) and deciding which ones to delete. Not to mention that your profile is probably backed up in ten different formats and times by now. So, yes, you are technically immortal when it comes to social media. Your profile will most likely remain there until the internet is somehow shut down completely from the world, and even then, it will still be stored in some sort of database, unless this one is destroyed (which again, will not happen).
While it is not possible to say your profile will remain online for eternity, it is accurate to say it will surely remain there a couple hundred years. Even when deleted, data can still be retrieved through recovery tools. Data is harder to get rid of than you think -if you deleted a file in your flash drive, getting it back is slightly easier than you think. Similarly, unless a hard drive is physically destroyed, some sort of fingerprint remains there with your data even after completely restoring it. Thus, your profile remains immune on the internet even after your death; someone will be able to visit your profile and look at your life; who you were and what you were (since, let us be honest, our social media contains a bit too much information about who we are). Nothing will truly represent us after death than our social media; it will be our legacy regardless of who we become.
So, is it better than being truly recognised in life and remembered for an action, discovery or invention? It is hard to say. Right now, nearly every single human being with internet access has been provided a timeless record of themselves that remains. History today will be remembered differently in the years to come than our current past. Perhaps, we all will become immortals in social media. With such a large database accessible to “meet” people, there is less requirement to remember who did what. Our records will stay there, ready for anything to click on it and find out who we were. Our profiles will speak for ourselves after our death.
And you, what does your profile say about you?
