April 11th 2019
How do you change… what the information super highway has already established? Because in many ways the most recent string of tech IPO’s (namely Snap Chat and… blah) have already cashed in on Wall St., assumingly under the premise that these, “internet platforms,” are to remain intact for some period of time.
However, is that the reality? Will we be using these same social media platforms… 100 years from now? And will this society be using the same email providers and reading the same news websites, long into the future?
Because how do you compete with Google as a startup company, today? And furthermore, when does that change occur? Especially in terms of the business of information and upcoming internet technology? And not just news websites or Ai… but what about pay-per-view content platforms… for example; Disney+, ESPN+ or even Itunes? Can small businesses even compete with these vastly automated platforms? (Where I personally feel like… I beat the N.Y. Times staff writers, literally every month and no one even knows who I am.)
However, in the near future… say 50 years from now, whether most people have moved onto the next platform or not… most profiles on Facebook or Twitter... will then have deceased users.
But with that being said... I believe that the internet should maintain these deceased user profiles, over the long haul. Nevertheless, is that point controversial? And should it be controversial? Because in my view the only thing that really should be of any debate, as to whether or not to preserve this data, is that perhaps user’s should be given the option of allowing their internet profiles to remain online, for some period of time after their death (posthumously).
Regardless, in terms of data storage… 1 social media user’s profile is usually less than a giga-byte of hard drive space today and fairly easily… could be stored for a very long time. (I’ve previously written about this topic in my article: Junk Mail – The Importance Of Preserving The Internet.)
Which is to say, this data could be preserved for centuries or even millennia… into the future, so why not preserve it?
IN FACT, that data… could very easily become a political rallying point… centuries into the future. And for that reason, in many ways today, “these databases of the deceased,” could end up being some of the most important political tools of the upcoming millennia(s). Which means that in the future actual wars could be fought over this data… for reasons needless to say… and in war… this data could be lost.
Yet, still it seems beyond reproach at this juncture in history to delete these profiles from the internet regardless of their future political implications. But also, it feels to me as a somewhat unethical venture to have 2 billion fake profiles, cluttering the reality of these societies, today.
Whereby, in this way, studying the lives of the deceased from a, “social media level,” might actually help to vastly improve our society moving forward. And when do we as Americans even consider the job statistics of 50 years ago? Like what if you knew that your Grandfather was un-employed for a majority of his life? Wouldn’t you want to know that data? And in turn, this data could potentially help fix many issues, generations into the future. Still, again the importance of this data is almost infinite, particularly in terms of political ramifications… going forward.
So, with that being said, how does our society opt to handle the use of, “deceased social media profiles,” and how does this topic transform moving forward, as political landscapes evolve?
And what do you think? Should, “database's of the deceased,” remain online posthumously? Or… should all of this data be deleted? And should this data be public in the first place? But also... how should we protect this data? Particularly in terms of FUTURE CONTROVERSY'S, where this data could create a violent conflict in the future, as our society evolves from century to century.
-William Larsen, Founder of Civilians News