When We Die Online: Preserving Heritage & Culture

Description:

Thinking of digital death, many envision inactive profiles of the deceased, or forgotten uploads collecting dust. But what happens when our content “dies” before we do? How do we reckon with losing parts of ourselves? With link rotting, falsely flagged and deleted content, and more sunset companies, our online artifacts are increasingly at risk. And corporations are the ones controlling our content’s destinies. While there’s focus on cultural cataloguing (films, books, etc.), there’s little interest given to our personal-scale. After all, this is what ultimately ladders up into larger cultural preservation. How should we approach this: Should all our uploads be immortal, outliving us? Or should they be as temporary as we are? And in which contexts do we approach each uniquely?