Facebook Recording Life

I've been wondering about Facebook (and social websites) today. I've been on one or another since my mid-university life; so since about 3 or 4 years. I can look back at pictures on my Facebook and look at a younger me. Physically, I look mostly the same but my hair and clothes have changed a bit.

So what's it going to be like in 10 years with these websites? Am I still going to be on Facebook or its future successor? Will I be able to see what I looked like for the last 10+ years? Will I be able to see a transition of myself from young, single Thomas to a 30-something year old, in a long term relationship or married Thomas? That's of course assuming I will do those things. Who knows, maybe I'll just end up as some bitter guy in my 30s, after all my friends have found love.

Will everyone have eventually caved to putting a small facsimile or avatar of themselves on the internet by then? A friend of mine loves to takes photos of her baby and upload them for all to see. She probably has a good 600 photos of him on her Facebook. Will this little guy grow up to be 11 or 12, and then jump onto Facebook and create his own little account and be able to see countless snapshots of himself that have been on there for all to see since he was born?

I don't think this is scary, sad or amazing per se. It's just... I don't know, so foreign or unusual; just uncharted territory.

Maybe everyone will get over the idea of having miniature, virtual shrines devoted to themselves and social websites will become wildly unpopular. Maybe they'll just go down a slippery slope, that ends when it's just one giant dating website.

Let's not forget there's also death. If you will recall, I once wrote a post about an acquaintance who died a little less than a year ago. I personally think that was a fucking great post, sicec it was so personal and I spent so much time and effort writing it out well. Anyway, she's on Facebook. She's now dead and she's is still on Facebook. People still occasionally post on her "wall". They say how much they care for her and miss her still. She was actually recently tagged on some photos... 6 months since she's taken a breath. Will Janelle's identity be forever posted up on the internet?

Don't get me wrong - what I'm saying should not detract from the positive feelings I got from her, described on that linked post. I get that her presence on Facebook is probably very cathartic for people: they get to release these pent-up emotions, directly sharing them with a woman they so cared for. She's there, "listening", and it gets recorded in writing...forever. It's like having a picture of her on a shelf, I suppose. The weird thing, though, is that don't you think people deserve a chance to really die? The things that made up them, go from physicality to memory? (Don't even think of saying "Oh but they do: physical photos to digital, internet memory!" You jackass.)

When my day comes, which could be in a week, on a tragic flight to Austin, or in 20 years, I would hope my friends would take me off Facebook. I don't need to be some one's friend, from beyond the grave. I would much prefer my virtual self to be dead. Let whatever mental image I've build in my friends' and family's memories be the image they look for when they think of me. Sure, I'll eventually be forgotten, but that's the way the universe works. Things should never last forever and nothing should ever try to be.