Ghosts in the Machine
Posted by Loki on Apr 5, 2009 in Personal, Social Media | 6 comments
I’ve noticed an odd thing about social media recently. Ghosts.
With most social applications, things like StumbleUpon, Twitter etc., you have the option of having it scan through your email address book looking for friends that are already using the app in question. It is pretty much a standard feature these days.
Since I’ve been doing some maintenance on my social presence I’ve had the disturbing experience of watching dead friends turn up in these searches. An odd experience to say the least, but also a token of things to come. It will be normal to see and hardly worth remarking, given time. But now, at the dawn of the social media age, it can be shocking.
In fairness I am not the average case study for this, in the 3.5 years since Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees I have seen 38 people I know get buried. From my grandmothers to local blogger Ashley Morris I’ve watched people from all of my social circles end their journey across this mortal coil. Since a larger than average percentage of my friends use social media, and use it a lot, it is only natural I should run across ghost accounts here and there.
One question it raises is what will happen to all of these ghost accounts? Will there eventually be some standard tprotocol for removing accounts after death? Or will we see more and more of them become online memorials as I’ve seen frequently on MySpace? What are your thoughts about the ghosts in the machine?
George “Loki” Williams is the owner of SocialGumbo, LLC
Yeah, a couple of them are often suggesting I connect with Ashley too. I kind of like it. Although I prefer online memorials growing, I also take comfort in the notion that the connections remain. Like the memories of those left behind, the links and pages kind of serve to hold the place in the universe of the one who is lost, like a web that remains after the spider has gone. :/
Intriguing question? At first thought you were mentioning all the Ghost Stories found on cable TV, and blogs like my ‘Ghost In Pirates Alley’ but realized the question was quite different. I can say on occasions when I also do my web maintenance I find old posts from many years ago, back to a PS1 and “Prodigy” that are in effect from another life still sitting on a server somewhere out there. I hope those blogs stay as those ‘ghosts’ should have a voice still if for no other reason than to remember.
Google throws away nothing. As everything moves into Google et al, These accounts will remain forever. Whether they will remain actionable is still a hot topic theoretically. I read way too much science fiction to speculate personally.
Good thoughts, all of you.
It gets me thinking, how long do you think it will take before the “ghosts in the machine” outn umber the living user base?
George, just stumbled upon your Blog while reviewing the RSVPs for next week’s New Media Cincinnati Meetup. First off, welcome to Cincinnati! I really enjoyed this post. I think you bring up a very valid point, that as time goes on and more people pass from this life, the issue of what to do with their remaining on-line presence will need to be dealt with. I have thought about this for a while and have already urged my parents to record their various website URLs and passwords and place them with their legal papers so that a family member will have access to them, when they pass away. Food for thought for everyone.
Looking forward to meeting you soon!
Hey Michelle, great to hear from you! I’m actually reaching out to a lawyer friend who is also a hardcore social media person about the possibility of him doing a guest post touching on this very subject. In the meantime your urgings to your parents seem like a very good start on the matter.
Come say hello on Saturday, I’m looking forward to meeting more of the local folks!