I tried, and failed, to 'memorialize' my fathers Facebook page. It became more and more full of crap from unhinged friends and distant relatives posting things they think he would have liked. I left Facebook over a year ago, and this is one of the things that drove me away. I could no longer stand seeing posts of shit videos with the tag line "Donny would have loved this!", just so the poster could score some likes from the clan.
Yep, always a nice surprise when you're using your phone, decide to check Facebook and get a "your year in Facebook" featuring your now-dead best friend, and an ex-girlfriend. Thanks for that, Facebook.
Randall Munroe of xkcd had a (humorous) look at when the number of dead people on Facebook surpasses the number of living people a few years ago: <a href="https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/" rel="nofollow">https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/</a>
I think the last quote of the article is telling:<p>"The truth," writes Borges, "is that we all live by leaving behind."<p>Honestly, why can't we all heed this advice and just leave Facebook behind?<p>The second we all stop looking at it the second it stops being so important. I hardly ever check FB anymore.
In the future, people will only be dead for a short moment, then a Facebook AI will take over and keep on posting and replying, generating new photos and liking your posts.
A few years ago I saw appearing in my facebook feed a link shown as shared by my deceased father, a month after he passed away.<p>I still wonder if his account had been compromised or if facebook was disguising sponsored links as shared by one of your contacts. Either way not very tasteful.
It's been over 6 years now since my father passed away and still, every year, Facebook sends me a notification that it's his birthday. How many years without someone logging in before Facebook stops considering them a "user"?<p>I did try to memorialize the page, they wanted me to fax his ID and death certificate, not going to happen, so the page will sit out there forever or until they have a change in policy I suppose.
This is the primary reason why I deleted my Facebook account. I couldn't stand the thought of being run over some day and having no way of stopping the creation of a virtual memorial owned by Facebook's stakeholders. I'd be turning in my grave.
At some point, people will indeed continue "living" online. It will be a gradual process, I suspect. People will increasingly rely on AI to handle routine stuff. To fake paying attention. And gradually, those AIs will become indistinguishable from their owners.
I've been thinking of this for a while: if you share quite a lot of things about your life, then, a good enough AI a few decades from now can learn - well, <i>you</i>.<p>'What would you ask from grandma if she were still alive?' becomes 'ask your grandma now'
Archaeologists will uncover the ancient memory talismans known as "hardisks" in the odd burial vaults the ancestors called "serv-are-ooms".<p>The Facebook of the Dead.
and = an ?<p>Should the bbc title not be "Facebook is a growing an unstoppable digital graveyard" ?<p>Not being pedantic but not sure if that typo is intentional.